The Pathless Sage
by Majin Son Goku
Summary: Naruto has awoken the Rinnegan after releasing a seal that was placed on him at birth. Through training, perseverance and some guidance from some powerful teachers, Naruto learns to control his new powers. Follow Naruto as he learns of his Destiny and walks the path of the Sage. Semi-God-like Naruto. NaruHina, SasuSaku.
1. The Prank and Jutsu Scroll

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Hey guys! This is my first Naruto fic, and my second fic all together. I will warn you now, I might not be the best of writers in the world (in my humble opinion, though a friend of mine told me I have perfect grammar and that he is jealous [BAH]) so if you don't like my story, please don't read it. I'm asking nicely.**

"**Kyuubi Speaking**"

"Normal Speech"

"_**Kyuubi Thinking**_"

"_Normal Thinking_"

_-Flashbacks when specified-_

"**Jutsu**"

**On with the story!**

The soft, calming ball of flames cast a humming, endearing glow over the small village. Shops were slowly coming out of their overnight slumber and opening up for business, stalls were being set up on the streets, the vendors behind them already attempting to attract customers. Wind blew softly over the village, blowing away the heat waves and tried to calm the midsummer heat. The peaceful faces of the Hokage, looking over their Village completed the picture of perfect serenity.

Whoops of glee, shouts of joy and laughter tore through the perfect serenity. The Villagers looked towards this new sound invasion (lolz?) to find the Village's menace running through the dirt roads at break neck speed, with men/women in billowing cloaks, with coloured masks covering their face, chasing him.

This was one of the five Great Ninja Villages of the world, Konohagakure. The Village Hidden in the Leaves. The current happenings were a regularly occurring phenomenon. Konoha would wake every morning to serenity, only to have it marred by the boisterous cackling of an orange clad ninja wannabe.

-TT-

Naruto was a blonde haired boy with a round, boyish face marred by three whisker like markings on each side of his face. He always wore an orange jumpsuit with white, high necks and orange trousers that reached up to the top of his ankles. He would wrap up the bottom of his trousers in ninja wraps to keep it out of anything he might trip on.

Evidently, the boy's fashion sense was a living abomination on the face of the planet.

Naruto was the boy that was running through the town centre, cackling like a mad scientist, with members of the ANBU Black Ops on his tail. His bright clothing, bright hair and maddening laughter gave the ninja perfect beacons in the crowd to track.

Ducking into an alleyway that he knew led to his apartment, he left some of his ready made traps in his wake as he darted towards his apartment. He was happy with the result of his pranks today, especially so since he had managed to prank the Village leader, the Hokage himself. As he ran towards his house, he thought of the perfect crime he just pulled.

_**-Flashback-**_

_Naruto was forced through the large oak doors of the Hokage's office, he was originally in a good mood to get to see the Old Man again, but his mood quickly deteriorated upon seeing the glare the Hokage was sending his way and he was sure that the glare was meant for him, not the ANBU behind him._

_The Hokage sat behind a large mahogany desk littered with paperwork, quills, pens, pencils and ink bottles. The room itself was quite large, filled with showcases full of trophies and pictures of old ninja that were honoured in the Village._

_One particular picture caught Naruto's attention, despite feeling the Hokage's glare drill a hole through the side of his head. He stared at the happy face of the Fourth Hokage, the corners of is lips pulled up in a slight smile, his eyes closed in happiness and his blonde hair billowing softly in the wind. No matter how many times he came into the room, that one picture always managed to catch his attention_

_Hiruzen Sarutobi cleared his throat to catch Naruto's attention and it had the desired effect, as he turned from the face of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, to the face of the Third Hokage,_

_Hiruzen Sarutobi. Naruto always thought it was weird, but due to the death of the Fourth a few years ago, the Third had to come out of retirement to take up the position again._

"_Alright Naru-bou, **[1] **what prank did you pull this time? What damages did you cause and to what region?" Sarutobi asked, the ANBU moved to answer his questions, but he held up a hand, "I want Naru-bou to answer, no one else interfere. Actually, just leave me alone with the boy."_

_The ANBU members that were in the room, standing behind Naruto and hidden in the shadows to guard the Hokage, left the room in complete silence. Naruto walked up to the Old Man's desk._

"_Well Jiji **[2] **I didn't actually do anything this time. The ANBU were trailing me for some reason and they got to me before I started painting the Hokage faces." Naruto replied in all honesty. He didn't do anything this time, so he didn't need to lie to get out of trouble this time._

"_Why would you even think of doing such a thing? The Hokage are respected people in our Village, even you respect them Naru-bou. So why would you do such a thing to defile their memory?" Sarutobi asked his surrogate grandson. He was surprised to say the least. Everyone in the Village respected the Hokage, but in the heart of Naruto, the Hokage held a special place._

"_Because I want to show everyone I will be better than them. I will show them that I can surpass all the Hokage's and be the best there is." Was Naruto's simple reply. It may not have been logical, but it was a reply nonetheless._

"_Naru-bou, I can't ignore this. Your everyday pranks I can overlook, but the defilement of a Village monument is unacceptable." Naruto slowly paled and started to clam up as he heard his surrogate grandfather speak. He started to think of a diabolical plan to get him out of this situation. "I will be asking Iruka to oversee your punishment. Everyday, I want you to -" But he got no further._

"_**Transformation Jutsu!**" Naruto held his hands in a Tiger seal. Immediately, a large amount of smoke poured out of where he stood and out came a voluptuous, blonde teenage girl with lush curvature. The girl was naked, but smoke covered her privates._

_As soon as he caught a sight of this, the Hokage shot backwards with his head leading his body. The force of the fountain of blood that was now pouring out of his nose was too much for even the greatest of the Village to handle._

_He watched the Old Man fall backwards for a second, but he wasted no time. Quick as lightning, Naruto changed back to his normal self, grabbed a Jutsu scroll that he had been eye-balling on the Hokage's desk for a while and jumped out of the open window._

_Recovering quickly from his plight, he summoned the ANBU that were outside his room. "Naru-bou ran off with one of my Jutsu scrolls. I want you to go catch him and bring back the scroll and Naru-bou, unharmed."_

_Hearing the warning in the Hokage's voice, the ANBU members disappeared from Sarutobi's office, but not before they caught the Old Man heave an exhausted sigh._

_As soon as the ANBU left his room, Sarutobi went back to his paperwork._

_**-Flashback End-**_

Naruto laughed his happy, carefree laugh as he stepped into his hallway, Jutsu scroll in hand. Even he was exhausted from trying to run away from ANBU Black Ops members, as seasoned as he was in the art of evasion. Well, the ANBU were the Village's Elite and he was a simple Academy Student running away from them. The Dead Last of the Academy.

Putting those sullen thoughts out of his mind, he decided to read the Jutsu Scroll and see if he could make heads or tails of a few complicated Jutsu. As he opened to the contents section, Naruto read the contents of the scroll out loud.

"**Fire Style: Eternal Black Flames,**

**Fire Style: Giant Phoenix Flower,**

**Fire Style: Meteor Shower,**

**Lightning Style: Thunderclap,**

**Illusion Style: Soul Binding,**

**Sword Style: Crescent Moon Slash.**"

All of those sounded like awesome and complicated Jutsu, but what caught his attention was the last two Jutsu on the contents page.

"**Uzumaki Sealing Style: Chakra Entrapment,**

**Uzumaki Bloodline: Azure Dragon's Wrath. **

**Note, only for the usage of those with Uzumaki blood from the Uzumaki clan of Uzushiogakure, The Village Hidden in the Tides**"

Naruto ran his finger over the last two Jutsu, thinking of the Village and Clan he never knew, the kinsmen he had never met, the Jutsu he had never learnt. The sense of family and friendship he never had.

Running out of the apartment and making for the training grounds, Naruto decided to go train.

**A/N: I originally planned for the chapter to be a lot longer, but this felt like a natural stopping point.**

**Please review, it helps me to keep going. Even an anonymous review saying "Good job" helps, so please take the 30 seconds needed to leave a review. Thanks.**

**If you like my writing and would like the read some more of it while you wait for the next chapter, there is another story that I have on my profile, please go read it and review it.**

**[1] : Bou is a suffix referring affectionately to young boys.**

**[2] : Jiji means Old Man or Grandfather. Another affectionate name/title/suffix thing.**


	2. The Graduation Exams

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: I don't know why, maybe it was just an uploading glitch, but on my PSP, it looked like the words were jumbled together for the first chapter. It has nothing to do with the way I format things, because my other story seems to be perfectly fine. No clue what happened. My friend Yuri told me that it looked normal on his PC, but he has a habit of pranking people. If you would be so kind, please leave a review or PM saying whether or not the words were jumbled for you.**

**Other than that, I don't have much to rant about this chapter. Picking up after 6 months from where we left off, this is where we start with cannon and veer away from cannon.**

**On with the story!**

-6 Months Later, at the Ninja Academy-

It was a pleasantly warm day today, warmer than normal for a winter day in Konoha. The Konoha Ninja Academy was abuzz with life, students were running around everywhere, trying to revise or practice their Jutsu at the last second. Yes, this was the day for their Graduation Exams.

Many of the students were wearing less clothes that day, favouring to wear lighter clothes due to the warmer day. Many were wary however and brought heavier clothes along with them. Some left their heavier clothes with their parents in order to pick them up later if they needed them.

The parents tried to stay out of the way of the students for the most part, they were starting to form a ring around the Academy. Parents weren't allowed to see the actual Exams, but they were more than welcome to come and pick up their children, along with their report cards and their Exam results.

Naruto was one of the few students that felt like he didn't need to practice. The others that weren't practicing weren't doing so because they were confident they would pass, after all the Konoha Academy Exams weren't all that difficult, not compared to other Villages. Naruto, however, was not practicing because he knew, no matter what he did, he would be failed without question. Of course, there was also no way he was going to be able to pull off half the weak Jutsu they were expected to perform.

Iruka Umino came out of the front entrance of the Academy, wearing a normal Chunin uniform. A green, long sleeved top, a green flak jacket along with green pants. He was wearing his Konoha forehead protector proudly and was one of the few people that understood where forehead protectors were meant to be worn. Konoha ninja had a habit of using their forehead protectors as other weird things. He had a brown clipboard in his hand.

"Alright, all participants of the Graduation Exam, please follow me." Iruka called and all the students, including Naruto, stopped whatever they were doing and started to follow Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei, what are we doing for the Exams?" Sakura called out, she was one of the Sasuke Fan Girls. Pink haired, worried more about her looks than her skills, though she had a fair bit of book knowledge.

"You will know soon enough, I will explain once we are inside." Iruka answered cryptically, giving away nothing of the actual contents of the Exams and the manner in which the Exams were to be conducted, as if he meant to entice them into being curious about their Graduation Exam.

The class followed Iruka to a classroom. Iruka stopped in front of the door, opened it dramatically and let everyone through. As soon as Naruto, the last student in the line, went through the door, Iruka went in and locked the door behind him. This caused everyone to gasp.

"Sorry, but that had to be done. We don't want any outside interference while the Exams are in progress." Iruka explained, trying to pacify those that were easily riled, and succeeding easily. "Okay, sorry to keep you all waiting. Please take a seat according to where your names are posted on the seats."

Everyone followed the instruction without a fuss. Naruto ended up sat sandwiched between Sakura, the crush of his short life, and Sasuke, his eternal arch nemesis. He didn't know whether to be happy about sitting next to Sakura or angry about sitting next to Sasuke, so he decided to shut up and be neither.

"First of all, I will explain the first part of the Exam. To those that are wondering, there are five parts in total within the Exam." Some people looked at Iruka weirdly at this. They grew up hearing about the four parts to the Exam, but what was this fifth part Iruka was speaking of? "Many of you look confused as to what the fifth part may be. Well, I will explain. The first part of the Exam is a written test."

At this, everyone, bar Sasuke (who was too cool and emo) and Sakura (too intelligent and loving of written tests), groaned their displeasure.

Iruka ignored the moans and groans and forged ahead. "The second part of the test will be a Genjutsu test. The third part will be Taijutsu and the fourth part will be Ninjutsu. These are all common tests that you all know about and have learned about when your parents told you about the Exams. The fifth part is a new test that the Hokage himself has felt necessary to introduce. It wil be a free test."

"What do you mean, a free test?" Surprisingly enough, it was the class coolboy Sasuke that spoke up. He never liked the unknown and had a near phobic fear of it.

"Meaning you are free to do whatever you want to impress the judges. Each judge will give you a mark out of 1000 based on how you execute whatever you were doing, including style points and the power of your technique. One of the judges will be the Hokage himself." Iruka said proudly, looking at the awed faces of the students.

He handed out the papers for the written test, and they begun.

-TT-

Everyone had finished the first four parts of their Exams, and now they were waiting in line for the final part that would make or break their futures.

Naruto knew he had done well in every part of the Exam, other than maybe the written test and the final Jutsu of the Ninjutsu test, the Clone Jutsu, but other than that, he was sure he was going to pass. This free test, this was his chance to shine.

Each student was called out in alphabetical order, according to their last names. Many did their clan's signature Jutsu and executed them well. Many showed off their traps and survival skills. However, nobody got a score in the 900s out a of a single judge and more people got a score in the 700s than not. Some even got a score in the 600s.

The students were allowed to watch as each of their peers was called out to the training ground in front of the two Village Elders and the Hokage and they performed their techniques. All the materials they needed were provided by the Examiners.

The students watched in silent anticipation as the Rookie of the Year favourite, Sasuke Uchiha was called out to the field.

"Uchiha, Sasuke." Iruka called, watching as Sasuke made his way to the centre.

Sasuke walked out with a grim face of determination. He asked for a simple wooden dummy and prepared to show off his best Jutsu. Slowly going through a few Seals, he finished on a Tiger Seal.

"**Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!**" Sasuke called, jumping in the air. Taking a deep breath, he blew out a medium sized ball of fire, aiming at the training tummy. As the fire engulfed the dummy a slowly died out, there was nothing left of the dummy but a stump that was burnt to a crisp.

892, 899, 912.

Sasuke walked out of the clearing with an arrogant smirk on his face, having gotten the highest score of the day, as the Chunin cleared up the field behind him.

"Uzumaki, Naruto." Iruka called.

The students almost broke out in mirthful laughter as Naruto walked with a passive face. He saw the display Sasuke had put on show, he saw how high the bar was, but he knew he could do better. He had Jutsu that were far more powerful than a simple ball of fire.

"Well, Naruto, what do you need for your technique?" Iruka asked impatiently, while silently wondering whether Naruto planned to do anything decent.

"Would it be possible for me to showcase two? I would show more of my arsenal, but I only have enough chakra to do only two of these at a time." Naruto replied. The Hokage looked at him, grim faced.

"Naru-bou, if you can't do more than two of them, then I suggest you only do one of them. There is no need for you to go to the hospital with Chakra Exhaustion at your age and for something so simple as the Graduation Exam." The Hokage warned.

Naruto nodded his understanding. "I will take a katana and a seven foot tall cylindrical piece of metal with a diameter of a meter." Many eyed him suspiciously. _"What is he trying to pull? There is no way someone like him can cut through a piece of metal that thick. Heck, even I can't!" _Sasuke thought in astonishment. Despite his thoughts, he sensed there was something going on.

"No way, Naruto-baka cut through a piece of metal? There's no way anyone but my Sasuke-kun that can do that!" Sakura shouted out loud, ignoring the looks of annoyance from the males and the looks of agreement from the females.

Naruto ignored everyone and everything around him as he took the katana in his hand and put it on his hip. Ever so slowly, he began to draw the sword in a majestic arc, while he chanted what sounded like a poem.

"**Azure flames freeze,**

**And azure flames blaze.**

**Azure Phoenix cry,**

**And azure Phoenix smile.**

**Azure Dragon sing,**

**And azure Dragon wail.**"

Slowly, as soon as the tip of the blade seemed to have left the sheath, he started to sheathe the sword again.

"See! All he did was chant a poem!" Sakura shouted, while others also shouted in agreement. Nobody caught the hundreds of slashes that went into the metal post. Even the Hokage only saw blurs that looked remotely akin to slashing.

With an audible clunk, the sword was replaced in the sheath. The chunk of metal exploded in azure flames outlined in black. The flames engulfed all of the metal that was there, rising high into the afternoon sky as it burned through the atmosphere. No fragment of metal was left, no charred soil, no ash; nothing. The metal post just burnt away into the air, leaving no evidence of what occured. A perfect kill.

"**Uzumaki Bloodline Limit: Azure Dragon's Wrath.**" Naruto hummed lightly, as he placed the sword in Irukas arms. He walked away, without looking at the scores he got, already knowing the result.

1000, 1000, 1000.

Sasuke looked on in outrage.

**A/R: A much shorter chapter than the last one, though that may only be because of the distinct lack of rambling from me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

**Please leave lots of reviews and love if you enjoyed the chapter and let all your friends know about the story. Thanks xD!**

**I hope this chapter doesn't look as jumbled as the last one and hope everything goes okay. I don't want my fics to look like weird pieces of nonsense.**


	3. Forbidden Scroll, Father's Note and Seal

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: So this is where the fun begins. Mizuki will probably get his ass handed to him sometime soon and the real plot starts now. Think of the last two chapters as prologue.**

**I think I figured out what is wrong and why the first chapter looked like a wall of text. It should be fixed sometime soon. Now the fic looks like a wall of text to me, but it probably works out on the website.**

**Don't expect chapters to come out this fast all the time, this is just the beginning and I'm excited to be writing a new fic, so the chapters are coming out a lot faster than normal.**

**On with the story!**

Naruto glared at his favourite teacher. It wasn't usually the case, he always got on with Iruka, though sometimes Iruka was more than a bit annoying for Naruto as he was the one that always caught Naruto after he played a prank. This time, however, Naruto had a legitimate reason to be angry at him.

"I'm telling you Iruka-sensei, someone's rigged the test. There's no way I didn't pass. I did half decent on the written test, I did okay on the Genjutsu, I did better than most on Taijutsu and I would say my Ninjutsu was a borderline pass. As far as the free test goes I had, by far, the highest score in the entire Academy. So tell me Iruka-sensei, how the hell did I not pass the Graduation Exam?" Naruto hollered at Iruka, for once, in more anger than he usually blessed Iruka with.

"Naruto, I can see that there is no reason for you to not have passed your Exam. In fact, in my opinion, you should have passed with flying colours and praise. But it's not my opinion that counts here, I can't do anything about the marks you were given by the markers, it isn't my place to argue." Iruka pleaded, though he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere. Naruto could be really stubborn when he wanted to be.

"So you're telling me to take this lying down? I have taken a lot of nonsense from a lot of people in my life, but this has reached a record low. What kinda bullshit is this?" Naruto screamed, but before Iruka could say anything, he whirled and stormed off.

"Oh boy, I get the feeling I am going to really regret this later on. Lord save us all, that boy can be a handfull." Iruka muttered to himself, before returning to marking the papers he was set to mark for the younger students in the Academy.

Outside, Naruto found a familiar face waiting for him, leaning against the collumn that supported the roof. Seeing Naruto approach, he too came towards him.

"Dobe, I need to talk to you. Come with me for a bit." Sasuke commanded, not bothering with a greeting, or asking whether the other boy had time on his hand or not.

"Not now Teme, I have things I need to take care of. If you need to talk about something, talk about it here and talk about it now." Naruto replied, also not caring for niceties.

"Fine. I'll tell you here. The Jutsu you used in the fifth Test, teach me how to do it." Sasuke said, taking on the same commanding tone again.

"Forget it, there's no way you could learn something like that." Naruto smirked.

"Why not? If you, a no name Dobe, the Dead Last of the Academy can learn a Jutsu like that, then why can't I, the Rookie of the Year, the heir to the Uchiha name, learn it? Besides, I have more need for a powerful Jutsu like that than you ever will." Sasuke shouted, not bothering to check if anyone else was in hearing range.

"Simple. Is your precious Uchiha brain too small for you to understand the concept of a Bloodline Limit? Then let me make it clear for you, only an Uzumaki can learn that Jutsu." Naruto hollered back, then proceeded to walk away from the shellshocked Sasuke. "Besides, I need to talk to the Hokage about something, I don't have time to be wasting on people as arrogant as you."

Naruto walked away calmly, leaving a dumbfounded Sasuke in his wake. _"Where is the useless, hyperactive Dobe that he was until a few days ago?" _Sasuke thought.

-TT-

Naruto was currently talking to Mizuki, one of the Chunin that was a teacher at the Academy. He wasn't away, as of yet, why Mizuki wanted to talk to Naruto, but he said he wanted to discuss something important. Had it been someone other than one of his teachers, Naruto would have flipped him off and walked away, but alas; it was one of his teachers and he was forced to listen to him.

"Naruto, I'm sorry you didn't pass the Graduation Exam. I was one of the people that was in favour of passing you, along with Iruka, but the other teachers were for some reason completely and utterly against letting you pass. I'm afraid me and Iruka couldn't do anything about the situation." Mizuki started.

Naruto was starting to have his doubts about whether Mizuki was going to talk about anything remotely important, or if he was going to just drone on and on about how unfair life was. He needed to get to the Hokage so he could complain and Mizuki was currently getting in his way, frankly.

"But seeing as you're the only person that didn't pass this year, I know of a special Graduation Exam that you can take," hearing that, Naruto perked up. If Mizuki didn't have it before, he certainly had the young boy's attention now. "It only becomes available if only one member of a class doesn't pass the Exam. All you have to do is prove your worth by taking the Scroll of Sealing from the Hokage Tower, run away with it and learn a Jutsu. If you can do that, you pass the Special Graduation Exam."

Something told him this was a trap, that this was stealing, that it would land him in serious trouble. Going against his better judgement, Naruto took off to find the Scroll of Sealing.

-TT-

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

He could hear his heartbeat in his ears, faster than it had ever been in his life. Though he didn't stick around to find out what happened, he hadn't left early enough to not hear the Hokage sending out the ANBU with a serious order.

"Bring the boy and the scroll back to me, both unharmed. I will deal with the thief personally." Those were the direct orders of the Hokage to the ANBU.

Naruto's blood had ran cold as he heard the tone of the Old Man's voice. He knew he had done something wrong, so terribly wrong, but he couldn't go back now. His instincts told him from the very beginning this was a trap and once again, his instincts were correct.

Naruto didn't hang around long enough for the ANBU to find him before he took off, completely masking his presence and his trail. He wouldn't be caught, not by the ANBU, not by Iruka, not by anyone, no matter what happened. He would stay hidden and complete this Special Graduation Test.

He sped through the forest, jumping from tree branch to tree branch, as the sound of pursuing ninja slowly became more and more distant. He was losing them, he was using his only talent: evasion.

Coming to a small clearing, ringed with tall trees, within the forest, Naruto stopped to take a rest. His breath came in shallow, ragged pants. He ran as fast as his feet would carry him through the forest to get there, but he could move no more.

Deciding to learn the Jutsu now, rather than leaving it until later to do it, Naruto slowly unravelled the massive scroll. The scroll opened with a slight glow but no resistance.

As Naruto sifted through Jutsu after Jutsu as they got harder to execute and more taxing to maintain, poring over complicated diagrams and puzzling explanations, his eyes ran over something that shook him to the soul.

There, on the Scroll of Sealing, was a handwritten exerpt next to a Sealing Array that made his eyes water and his blood boil like molten fire.

"_Dear Naruto,_

_If you are reading this small piece of writing I had time to leave and you are seeing the Sealing Array that has been placed on this Scroll, then I assume you have succeeded me as the Fifth Hokage._

_First of all, I wanted to apologise for leaving you with something as heinous as the Kyuubi, knowing that the Villagers would resent you for it. I am sorry for leaving you with such a difficult life, for cursing you to a Hell on Earth, but it had to be done._

_I had to do something to protect the Village and the only thing I could do was Seal the Kyuubi away in a child, so the Chakra Network wouldn't be as developed as an adult's, so that the Kyuubi could be properly sealed. As you know, I had to give my life to make the Seal, so I didn't have the liberty to experiment on as many babies as I wanted to. I had to get it right the first time, so the only baby I trusted to contain the Kyuubi was my own._

_I'm sorry I had to do something so criminal, but it had to be done. Your Chakra Network was already developed for a baby who was just born, so I had to place a Seal on you to make sure your Chakra was accepting enough for the Kyuubi to be contained._

_This Seal, however, had the adverse effect of sealing your potential away, as well as a Bloodline that you had seemed to inherit. When you read this Naruto, I want you to place your hand on the Sealing Array and pump a little of your Chakra through your arm. No matter how old you are, I'm sure your Chakra has already accepted the presence of the Kyuubi and you are ready to receive your true powers._

_Upon activation, the Seal will also give you Ryuujinjakka, your Grandfather's precious nodachi. It's a Uzumaki clan heirloom, wield it with honour._

_And always remember, me and your mother loved you, for however long we got to know you._

_-Love, Minato Namikaze, Fourth Hokage, Your Father."_

Gingerly placing his hand on the Sealing Array, he slowly pushed a little Chakra into his hand. The Seal did the rest. Rapidly, it drained Naruto of Chakra completely and he suddenly became aware of a vicious presence in his body.

Before he could think any further of this presence, the Chakra was slammed back into his system, but the Chakra was strengthened tenfold, causing his Chakra Network to expand. He could feel the fire in his veins, the raw power that was coursing around him, he could feel his mind expanding, his senses improving and sharpening.

Not long afterwards, he collapsed from the stress and pain of having so much Chakra pumped through his system.

**A/R: Evil, evil cliffhanger. I know, that was mean. I couldn't help it though, so too bad. The fun begins now and I will start writing the next chapter as soon as I can.**

**If you liked reading the story, please review, it helps me out and motivates me to write a lot more. Thanks xD**


	4. The Death of Mizuki

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Wow, I am on such a roll that it should not be okay. I am writing the fourth chapter in almost the same sitting.**

**Thanks to people that reviewed. If you think that Naruto getting the Azure Flames is the main thing, you haven't even begun to see what is coming. As for people that say I should have left the training in, that's a good idea. I will keep that in mind next time and try to slow it down a bit.**

**Thanks to my friend 'I Before A Except After K' for helping me fix the problem with the text wall and uploading the last few chapters. He wrote a couple stories that are really good, so if you have time, go check em out!**

**On with the story!**

Naruto awoke to the sound of shuffling feet. As soon as he remembered where he was, he sat bolt upright, not wanting to get sneaked up on by someone. His eyes flew open as realisation hit him, looking around, he saw Iruka coming towards him.

"Stay back, don't come closer," Naruto moaned in a hoarse tone. His throat felt like someone had used sand paper to rub it clean. Not wanting to get caught, Naruto tried to stand up.

"Easy there, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to pick you up, the Hokage wants you see you." Iruka tried to soothe him, rather than alienate him even further, but didn't stop his forward advance.

"He's lying to you Naruto," called out a sickly sweet voice. Naruto, now stood upright, turned to see who the voice belonged to. Mizuki was standing on a branch on one of the trees that formed a ring around the clearing, "He only wants to get the Scroll of Sealing from you and use it for his own gain."

Somehow, Naruto felt sharper, smarter, faster and stronger, though his body ached and complained, almost refusing to listen to him. Things looked clearer to his eyes, he could see Chakra coming off of the bodies of the two ninja close to him, he could hear both of their calm breathing. His brain worked faster than ever.

"No, you tricked me. You only wanted to get the Scroll. You are the one that wants to use it for his own good," Naruto muttered in a deathly calm tone. His eyes shifted from Mizuki to Iruka, "Take the Scroll and give it to the Hokage. Roll it up and no matter what you do, do not read a single word that is written in that exerpt."

"What are you going to do, Naruto?" Iruka asked, already rolling up the Scroll, looking at Naruto with concern.

"I am going to take care of this traitor and come back to the Hokage Tower, I have some explaining to do to the old man." Naruto replied, already turning towards Mizuki and getting ready for a battle. Spotting a flash of yellow from his peripheral vision, he moved towards it rather than Mizuki.

"You may be the demon, brat-" Mizuki started, only for Iruka to interrupt.

"NO, STOP MIZUKI! IT'S FORBIDDEN!" Iruka screamed, cutting off what Mizuki was going to say.

"Why not, he would learn about it someday, that he is the reincarnation of a demon-" For the second time in less than a minute, Mizuki was interrupted.

"Save your breath, I already know I was the one who the Fourth Hokage Sealed the Kyuubi in. There is nothing surprising about it, considering the treatment I receive from the Village." Naruto sighed slowly. He had picked up a nodachi from the floor.

It had appeared there once the Seal was removed, as his father had promised. A black lacquered nodachi patterned with azure flames. The hilt was a simple white, the pommel a stark silver. The sword was simple, but even an amateur could see the craftmanship behind in the sword. It exuded power and menace.

Iruka gasped upon hearing Naruto say this, while Mizuki only sighed. Iruka opened his mouth, then closed it, only to open it again.

"Forget it Iruka-sensei, just go, I don't mind one bit. I'm going to quickly finish off this moron and come to catch up with you." Naruto was getting tired of waiting.

"Well then demon, how do you plan to beat me, a Chunin, in that crumpled, humanoid form of yours?" Mizuki screamed, convinced that Naruto was the Kyuubi and not Naruto himself, and pulled out a Fuma shuriken.

"Simple. One move, that's all I need." Naruto said, implying just how much stronger he was than a normal Chunin.

"**Azure flames freeze,**

**And azure flames blaze.**

**Azure Phoenix cry,**

**And azure Phoenix smile.**

**Azure Dragon sing,**

**And azure Dragon wail.**"

Suddenly, Naruto wasn't in front of him anymore. One moment, he was there holding onto the nodachi, while the next, he was gone. Vanished into thin air.

Something was burning, he could smell it. It was something alive, fleshy. It smelled like burning meat.

With horror, he realised what was happening. He screamed as pain overtook his mind and his body started to burn away.

Standing on a branch a few trees behind where Mizuki was previously standing, Naruto muttered: "**Uzumaki Bloodline Limit: Azure Dragon's Wrath.**"

Naruto was happy with this new katana, it seemed to be attuned to the azure flames. He wasn't, however, happy with the way his body had reacted when he had used Chakra. His Chakra Network burned, as if it was still recovering from the strain of the Seal that had just been recently removed.

_"I really like this Jutsu. Burning away the target until even the atoms don't remain. The heat that it gives off is ridiculous, but so is the amount of Chakra that it consumes. Whoever invented this Jutsu is a genius, combining Space-Time Ninjutsu with Fire and Wind Manipulation and then outputting it through the sword. Took me five months of constant Chakra Exhaustion to even get this Jutsu to a point where it can be used. I still need to master it though." _Naruto's thoughts ran rampant as he sped through the forest to catch up to Iruka.

-TT-

Naruto awoke to a smell of disinfectant, sight of white sheets and curtain and the sound of a whispered conversation. He wasn't aware of where he was or what had happened after he killed Mizuki. _"Where am I?" _Naruto thought.

"I'm telling you Hiruzen, there is no need to put the Genin back into the Academy just because of one measly Dead Last," Danzo whispered to Sarutobi, trying not to wake the already awake Naruto.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Naruto questioned, cutting into the conversation that the older males were having. He wasn't aware of it just yet, but they were talking about him.

"Naru-bou, good to see you awake. You are in the hospital, I admitted you here because of Chakra Exhaustion and some minor damage to your Chakra Network. How are you feeling?" Sarutobi asked the boy kindly, not giving him any clues as to what the prior conversion was concerning.

"I feel fine, just a bit sore, hungry and most of all thirsty. However, all things considered, I feel perfectly fine. How long has it been since my admission?" To say Sarutobi and Danzo were surprised was an understatement. Overnight, the boy's tone of voice had changed, along with his speech pattern. No longer did he speak in a friendly, bright voice, gone was the sloppy, almost tramp-like speech pattern that Naruto had used before.

_"What's going on? The boy sounds more like a Hyuga than a random ninja that lived on the streets for half their life." _Danzo thought in astonishment, while Sarutobi thought in a similar line, but in a much kinder fashion.

"Not long, you just slept overnight," Sarutobi answered, ignoring the fish-like gaping Danzo was doing right now.

"I see, when will it be possible for me to take my leave? Also, concerning what you were speaking of before I intervened, what were you implying when you said the Genin were being sent back to the Academy?" Naruto asked suspiciously, his second question being directed at Danzo.

This time, Danzo answered coldly before Sarutobi had a chance to answer the question. "Sarutobi has decided the Genin that recently passed should be sent back to the Academy due to corruption and favouritism among the teachers. This time, he has decided all students will be monitored by a Jounin he trusts."

"You will be able to leave any time you want, you have been treated." Sarutobi added, remembering the first question that was asked.

"I see. I will take my leave after a short slumber. As for the other matter, I agree. I was the only one that failed the Graduation Exam, even though I was certain I was one of the top scoring students during the Exam. I scored, by far, the highest on the fifth test, which was said to award the highest amount of marks towards the end result. This shows that there is at least a slight bit of corruption within the Academy teachers, as well as the fact that one of the teachers of the graduating class was a traitor who I, regretfully, had to kill." Naruto informed, much to the Old Men's shock, and to Danzo's chagrin.

The Hokage only nodded at the information provided by Naruto, while the Warhawk only thought: _"You foolish brat, of course I know there was corruption within the Academy, I was the one that ordered them to fail you after all."_

Naruto frowned at the smirk that had unconsciously come onto Danzo's face, but chose to ignore it. "Now, if you will excuse me gentlemen, I have some sleep to catch up on." With that, Naruto was back under the covers and under the cover of sleep.

**A/R: Shorter chapter. I would have kept writing, but the next bit makes for a perfect beginning to a chapter, so I decided to stop. I have a slight idea as to where I want the story to go, but no concrete idea as to what I want the plot to be.**

**If you are enjoying the story so far, please be so kind as to leave a review, it really helps me out and boosts my confidence.**


	5. The Talk with Kurama

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Thanks for reviewing guys, I got a decent amount of reviews for the story now. Well, decent amount by my standards.**

**On with the story!**

Naruto felt himself floating in what he assumed was air. He could feel nothing, literally nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing, taste nothing and see nothing. He was floating in a timeless black abyss. He couldn't feel any clothes on his body, so he assumed he was naked.

_"Where am I?" _Naruto thought, still half asleep.

Thinking set in motion a chain of events. First was the fact that the black abyss morphed into something more substantial, a sewer, but there was no pungent smell. The colour of the atmosphere slowly turned from black to a dull olive green.

_"Where am I and what am I doing here? What's happening?" _Naruto thought, slightly panicking. Suddenly, he could feel an overwhelming, _evil_ presence near him. As he looked towards where he thought the presence came from, he saw what looked to be a jail cell. The inside of the cell glowed a dull, reddish orange.

"**You don't realise where you are brat?**" A deep, gravelly voice seemed to call from the depths of the cell, the voice shook him to the core of his very being. "**You don't recognise who I am?**"

Something told Naruto he should be scared of what this thing was. He still didn't understand where he was, or how he had got there, but this thing made him forget all of those worries and focus on it. He didn't know if he should actually be scared of the thing, seeing as it wa sbehind bars, but he decided to be wary.

"Who ... what are you?" Naruto called, not wanting to speak too much, lest he speak out of line and anger whatever it was that was behind bars.

"**I am the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, brat. Your tenant, as you might know.**" The Fox came in full view of Naruto now, his demonic coat glowing with power, his slitted eyes blazing. His entire gigantic form exuded menace, rage, greed and all things negative in the world. Seeing the Fox this close, Naruto wanted to run and hide like a little child.

"So, what do you want with me? Why did you bring me here? Well, I assume it was you that brought me here." Naruto fought the urge to run, he knew running would do him no good here. If the Fox wanted to, he could come after Naruto and destroy him within a second.

"**I wanted to speak with you, brat. It seems the time has come for us to make a pact, so as to not get in eachother's way.**" Kyuubi said, though in his mind, he was thinking down a different line. "_**Of course I want to make a pact with you, the eyes you unlocked with your potential because of the Seal puts my life in jeopardy. I might not want to admit it, but I can't do anything against those eyes of his.**_"

"Sure," Naruto forgot the previous fear he had for the Kyuubi. He surprised the proud Fox by smiling and walking right up to the giant rods that were keeping the Kyuubi captive, "So, what would making the pact with you entail? I assume you want to offer something, but you want something in return?"

"**Look, brat, I have been stuck inside you for the past ten years. I might not want to admit it, but even I can see that I am not getting out of you any time soon,**" At this, the Fox grimaced, making his intimidating features look truly frightening, "**So I want to offer you my full co-operation. I will allow you to use my Chakra at will, but in return, I want your word that you won't enslave me with your eyes.**"

Naruto didn't seem to be listening, though he was, and was climbing up the gate that kept the cell closed. Upon reaching the centre, he once again surprised the Kyuubi, but this time, by ripping off the seal that kept him captive.

"**Brat, do you realise what you have done? You have set me, the Nine Tailed Fox, the Kyuubi, the greatest demon on this planet, free. You have set me free.**" The Kyuubi's voice rumbled like thunder, the pressure from his presence multiplied tenfold.

-TT-

A nurse had come in to Naruto's hospital room to change the sheet, assuming that Naruto had already vacated the room. So imagine her surprise when she saw a boxer clad Naruto laying in the bed, looking peaceful.

At first, before seeing Naruto, she was humming happily to herself. She enjoyed her job, helping out at the hospital, helping the injured, the sick, the elderly. Even she, however, had to admit that doing the same chores day in and day out had gotten more and more tedious, boring even. They felt like chores.

Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw Naruto laying there. She walked slowly towards him and tucked the sheets under one of her armpits to allow the other hand to be free. She intended to wake Naruto so she could change the sheets.

She dropped the sheets and let out a bloodcurdling scream as an orange, rage filled aura consumed the room.

A doctor came running, wanting to see what had happened for a nurse to have screamed like that. Seeing the state of the room, he did the most rational thing he could think of.

"Inform the ANBU and the Hokage, the Demon is running rampant!" He called.

-TT-

"I know what I did, Kyuubi-" Naruto was cut off by the Kyuubi.

"**Call me Kurama, brat. That's my real name.**"

"Right. I know what I did Kurama, but the fact that I released the Seal father had put on you doesn't mean that I am allowing you to do as you please." Naruto explained, not missing a beat even as he referred to the Fourth Hokage as his father.

"**Hmmm, so you found out about the Fourth being your father. I won't lie to you, brat, even I held that man in great respect,**" At this, Kurama's eyes glazed over, as if reminiscing about the past, "**But what do you mean, you won't allow me to run rampant? Let me clarify, brat, YOU SET ME FREE!**"

"Keep your hair on, sheesh. What I am doing is not allowing you to run about and do as you please, but offering you an extension to our pact," As he said this, Kurama's eyes lit up as if intrigued. "I will allow you to live outside of this horrid place, maybe even allow you to come out from time to time, but you must promise me your complete allegience. I expect you to listen to every word I say and never, and I mean NEVER, attack the Village or attempt to take over my conscience."

Kurama contemplated his words for a bit, thinking it over and tossing it around in his mind. He seemed interested in the deal. "_**On one hand, I can't do absolutely anything I want, but in exchange I would be as close to freedom as I could hope for. In essence, this is offering me good living conditions and a will of my own.**_"

"Well, what do you think? Want to take me up on my offer?" Naruto was never known for his patience and even after removing the Seal, his lack of patience showed no sign of improving.

"**I will take you up on your offer, brat. It's the best living conditions I have ever had within a Jinchuuriki.**" Somehow, Kurama's tone of voice sounded lighter, as if he wasn't trying to kill everything in the general vicinity with just his voice anymore.

"Thanks Kurama," Naruto smiled, and his smile got even wider when something clicked into place in his mind. "I will never be alone and family-less while your still here."

"**What are you trying to say, brat?**" Kurama had an inkling as to what his container was saying, but he did not want to jump to any conclusions. After all, the idea of a human being calling a great demon such as he a part of their family? Utterly ludicrous.

"Well, think about it. Throughout my entire life, you were the only thing that was constantly there. It's like you're trying to fill up the void left behind by my parents. After all this, I think it would be an insult to not at least consider you a friend, if not family." Naruto said, his smile set perfectly in place.

For the first time in his long and arduous life, and not for the last, Kurama smiled. Not one of his menacing 'I-am-about-to-demolish-your-life' smiles, but one of his 'I-am-actually-really-happy' smiles. As what could only be interpretted as an affectionate gesture from the fox, he placed his right forepaw on Naruto's head, simulating a fatherly pat.

"**Your parents would be proud of you, brat.**" Even after all this, he still called him a brat!

**A/R: I know that chapter was short, but hey, it was nice and sweet. I am still going through the chapters to make a concrete foundation for the rest of the story. I promise a longer chapter sometime very soon.**

**Thanks to all for reviewing. Please continue reviewing, it makes me happy and urges me to pump these chapters out faster.**

**I would like to take this time to say, the person that semi-flamed, please leave a way for me to contact you so that I can actually explain what you thought was a spoiler.**

**I would also like to say, I really need a beta that can read chapters fast.**


	6. Enter: Kisame and Itachi

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Thanks for reviewing guys. I must say, I am pleasantly surprised at how popular this fic has gotten in only a couple of days. I hope to see this story grow and bloom into a nice and plump one that everyone can enjoy.**

**Allow me to take the time to once again remind readers that this story will NOT be a harem fic. I have something of an ... allergy, you will, to harem fics. Thus, I read none but the best and most well explained harem stories myself.**

**On with the story!**

"Naru-bou, Naru-bou, wake up!" Hiruzen was shaking Naruto by his shoulders, attempting to wake the small, blonde boy. Naruto was sweating profusely, his small frame shaking violently without the Hokage having anything to do with it. Whatever was happening to Naruto, it was scaring the Third and he wanted the boy awake as soon as possible.

Slowly, Naruto's eyes fluttered open slightly. He felt something on his shoulders and he was wondering what it could be. Ignoring the Old Man shaking him, he sat upright and rubbed his temples.

"Naru-bou, you okay? You were shaking like a leaf and leaking Chakra. You really scared me for a bit." Sarutobi half shouted, half spoke. He was shaken up and most of all, worried about Naruto and his Seal's condition.

It took Naruto a few precious seconds for him to get his bearings and drape is legs over the edge of the Hospital bed, precious seconds that the Old Man spent worrying about him.

"Don't worry, Jiji. Everything is fine, but I think you would want to know about what happened while I was asleep," Naruto said, at which Sarutobi arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow. "It's quite important to my status as a ninja and whether you want to still let me pass through the Academy."

"Why wouldn't I want to let you through the Academy? Naru-bou, don't tell me you did something stupid..." Sarutobi trailed off, waiting for Naruto to answer with patience that could only be accumulated through the endless years Sarutobi spent as a ninja.

Naruto shook his head. "I can't tell you here, not while anyone could walk in on us," as if to prove his point, a Nurse walked into the room with new sheets. Not the same Nurse as before, that one was still recovering from what she saw earlier.

"_Does this have something to do with Naruto leaking the Kyuubi's Chakra earlier?_""Fine, meet me in my office in an hour or so, but first go to your apartment and get cleaned up," with that he vanished in a swirl of leaves.

"I believe all my belongings have been taken care of?" at this, the Nurse only nodded a silent head, "Good, then I believe the time for me to take my leave is long overdue." He too vanished in a swirl of leaves.

-TT-

Naruto walked into his apartment to find the messy flat completely clean and void of any mess. "_Strange, my house is always messy, regardless of how careful I am,_" Naruto thought in confusion. He had more than a reason to be confused, his apartment never stayed clean for more than an hour, even after he cleaned.

Naruto was immediately on high alert. Years of beatings, torture, evasion and stalking the streets at night for supplies had driven home one thing into his young mind. Caution. **[1] **Even when entering the apartment, he had made no noise. His presence gave nothing away, not a sound, not a smell. He had learnt long ago how to mask that using Chakra. Several run-ins with the Inuzuka Clan had taught him the importance of masking the latter.

Taking no risks, Naruto prepared two Chakra Entrapment Seals, one in each hand, and started walking towards the living room. This time too, he walked through the door without a single squeak, without a single noise.

At this point in time, even though he was young of age and shallow of heart, he was a master of stealth. No matter what the Villagers said or did to the young boy, no one could deny it. Right now, Naruto was using every single ounce of those skills in stealth to keep himself hidden, lest he run into something unpleasant.

He had no idea. No idea just how unpleasant his discovery could have been, if only his discoveries had nothing but good intentions towards him.

There, sitting on his old and ragged couch were two men, well that's what Naruto assumed they were. One was taller than the other by quite a fair margin, and they both slumped backward as if asleep.

They were wearing long black cloaks adorned with red clouds, simple hats made of straw covered their heads. Naruto had heard about this legendary criminals, he had seen them in the Bingo Books that he stole from the trashcans.

Akatsuki.

**A/R: Thanks for reading and read the entire Author Rant if you want to take part in shaping this story's plot. :P**

**Please continue to review if you have been doing so in the past, or please do start if you already haven't been. Reviews are a great motivation to write more and they are particularly effective as a medication for a condition I have. The condition is widely known as Procrastination and many authors, that I know of at least, suffer from it.**

**Concerning Sasuke and Sakura, I would like some help. If not through reviews, then through PM, please let me know. This concerns how this story is going to turn out and may affect a significant portion of the plot depending on how it turns out. I had originally planned for Sasuke to stay in the Village and be a good guy, but depending on how this 'Poll' turns out, I may have to reconsider my ways. This may also alter the way some things go and some personality traits of a small number of characters, namely Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto.**

**Do you want Sasuke to be a complete and utter asshole beyond repair and reason, and do you want Sakura to be a completely devoted Banshee of the Emo King?**

**I have also been reading Naruto the One Man Team recently and I have come up with a fair few ideas from it. Will you guys be interested in me going through with some of those ideas, regardless of whether this story may turn out similar to another or whether do you want me to stick with Cannon?**

**It may seem like I am leaving a lot up to the readers, but I will not be leaving EVERYTHING to the readers. But since it will be the readers that ... well read the fic, I thought it might be a little more interesting to leave some of the finer workings of the story up to the audience to decide upon.**

**The next chapter may be a little later than usual since I will be waiting for a response from the readers until I decide on the content for the next chapters. Unlike other authors that stack up on chapters, I write and publish right away.**

**Meh, I am rambling again. I need to stop doing that.**

**[1] : If anyone cares to remember, please remember that at this point in time, Naruto hasn't learnt anything too great. Just the two Uzumaki Clan Jutsu and the Academy Jutsu. Naruto also has no knowledge of the Shadow Clone Jutsu or the Mass counterpart of it.**


	7. The Talk with Itachi and Kisame

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Okay okay okay, put those sharp objects away, there is no need to maim me. I know the last update was short, even by my standards. Not to mention that cliffhanger, bet that got some of you on edge :P. I might try not get caught up into making another evil cliffhanger so I can actually do some justice to you guys and actually write a longer chapter. I think one is overdue.**

**On with the story!**

Naruto's mind froze, literally froze. No throught went through him for a while, he just silently stood there with the Seals still active on his hands. He couldn't comprehend what someone along the lines of members of Akatsuki would be doing here. Almost as soon as his mind froze, however, his mind started going into overdrive.

All his senses suddenly sharpen, his eyes started consuming Chakra, but in turn, his vision got a lot better. He seemed to be able to see the Chakra in the two relaxed figures on his couch, and he was scared. Their Chakra signatures were massive.

"_What the hell are they doing here? Well, I can't do much other than Seal away their Chakra and hope for the best, there is little hope for me to fight and win against such opponents._" Naruto thought, keeping his calm despite being scared out of his mind.

Slowly and silently creeping towards the two limp forms on his couch, he did what he could to keep himself safe at that moment in time. Pumping all the Chakra he could into the Seals, so they would hold fast for a long time and resist a high Chakra output, he tapped both the men on their heads and pulled out his Nodachi from its sheath.

"Wake up," holding the Nodachi over both of their torso, he shook them awake one by one , "Who are you and what business do you have at my residence?"

Itachi turned around, paying no heed to the blade which pointed somewhere between his upper chest and the lower part of his throat. Coal black met sapphire blue as Itachi tried to put Naruto in a Genjutsu with his Mangekyo Sharingan.

A shocked expression flitted momentarily across his face, before his face returned to the old stoic mask. Kisame was watching the exchange with a bored look, still trying to figure out just why he couldn't channel any Chakra through his body.

"Uzumaki-san, please lower your blade and sit with us. We have much to discuss," Itachi's voice was a lot lower than he thought it would be, seeing as the man had less than masculine features, by his opinion. He was expecting something higher and more feminine.

Walking around the couch, and sheathing his Nodachi, he decided to sit on the ragged armchair across from the criminals, all the while keeping a careful eye on both of them.

"Itachi-san, can I kill him?" Kisame asked, much to Naruto's fear and Itachi's ire.

"No, Kisame, I will not allow you to kill the boy," this relieved Naruto somewhat, until Itachi turned to him, "Tell me Uzumaki-san, why are we not capable of using Chakra at this moment?"

"I placed a Seal on both of your heads. There is no point in struggling, though there are very limited places where I can place that Seal, I happen to have had access to the one that is usually the most effective," Naruto replied. He was going to ask more of the pair, but he was under the impression that talking out of line would get him nowhere good. It never did.

"Please, don't be afraid. We are only here to talk to you. You will find that our proposition would be highly beneficial to you, especially seeing the Doujutsu you seem be in possession of," at this, Naruto's face turned confused, "Judging by your expression, I take it you are unaware of your Bloodline?"

"Oh, so that's what the Scroll meant." Naruto breathed, not daring to speak too loud. As time wore on, he was becoming more and more scared. He wasn't used to being in the presence of such dangerous people, people that may or may not be hostile.

"Please relax, we bear no ill intentions towards you," the corners of Itachi's lips pulled up a bit, which Naruto took to be his attempt at a comforting smile. "Seeing as you have such a powerful Bloodline, I would like the opportunity to train you."

Now, Naruto was no fool. Had he really been the idiot that he was pretending to be in front of the Village, he would have jumped at the possibility of being trained by someone remotely as strong as Itachi. However, idiotic he was not.

"Why are you doing this?" When Itachi opened his mouth to answer, Naruto held up his hand and continued, "Don't tell me it is due to the Bloodline. I am no fool Itachi Uchiha, and only a fool would take help from a shinobi as powerful as you, knowing that you might have hostile intentions."

"I assure you, I have no hostile intentions towards you," when Naruto didn't respond and only looked at Kisame, Itachi tried to defend his partner, "Neither does Kisame as I'm sure, his earlier comment was only him being normal. He rather enjoys bloodshed." Naruto cringed for a mere moment.

"It still doesn't explain why you want to train me. If you really did want to train me just because I possess this Bloodline, then pray tell, what are you doing in my house?"

"What do you mean?" Itachi could see him getting suspicious. "_It's true I hold no ill intentions, but even still, this boy is sharp for a child that is still in the Academy._"

"Please, like I said, I'm no fool. Judging by your reaction after seeing my eyes, I can only think that you only found out about my Bloodline after meeting me in person, which still leaves the question, why are you in the premises of my residence?" Where did the boy learn to talk like that, and why was his mind so _sharp_? "Besides, I can tell by your attire that you are members of Akatsuki. If I know one thing about Akatsuki, it's that they are not friendly. Especially the two of you, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki."

Itachi's eyes widened. He was expecting the boy to know his name, seeing as they were from the same Village, but for him to know Kisame's full name? Where was this boy getting his information from?

"I was expecting you to know my name, since we are originally from the same Village, but how do you know about Kisame?"

Naruto only rolled his eyes, criminal or not, it was really comfortable talking to them. Talking to Itachi was like talking to the older brother that he never had.

"Itachi Uchiha, currently aged 15, graduated from the Academy at the age of 7, became a Chunin at the age of 10, and by the time you were 13, you were an ANBU Captain. The third known person to have awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, but due it's use, you are now nigh blind. You killed your entire Clan a few years back, with the exception of your younger brother Sasuke, and ran away from the Village and became a missing-nin," all through this, Itachi's eyes became wider and wider, "While you told your brother to hate you after torturing him through the use of Tsukuyomi, and left him for dead, you really loved your brother from the bottom of your heart, and still do, I assume. Though you told him that you killed your Clan in order to test the extent of your abilities, you really did it to stop the coup that your father and the senior Clan members were planning."

"Itachi-san, is this-" Kisame started, only to be interrupted by a thoroughly irritated Itachi.

"Be quiet for a second Kisame," slowly, Itachi turned to Naruto, "How do you know all of this, and who gave you this information?"

Naruto decided to ignore the outburst from the otherwise calm man, and continue with his barrage of information, "Though the Hokage was unaware, you were under the orders of Danzo Shimura. You were given a choice between dying with your Clan, while the Village took damages in order to completely annihilate the Uchiha Clan, or you simply killed the Uchiha yourself and saved your little brother, who was innocent, but becoming a missing-nin in the process. You, being the traumatised pacifist you were, obviously chose the second option for the betterment of the Village," he looked into Itachi's eyes, daring him to contradict, "While this was happening, you met up with Madara Uchiha, who would have attacked the Village, but you pacified him through offering to eliminate the Uchiha Clan for his revenge. Did I get any of that wrong?"

Itachi only gaped for a few minutes. As calm and collected as he usually was, he had no idea how to react to this insolent child that seemed to be able to pick apart his greatest secrets with the greatest of ease. Finally, finding his voice, he muttered: "How do you know all of this?"

"Simple. Being hated and tortured by the Village as I grew up, I was forced to become far more mature than my age allowed. Since I was always hunted by the Village, sometimes even by high ranking tracking ninja, I had to quickly learn to become stealthy," Naruto replied.

"That still doesn't explain how you know all of this about me," Itachi was showing minor signs of shock. He was honestly baffled by this kid.

"I also stalked the streets at the time. Seeing as I was homeless and lived on the streets, I would usually go from place to place in an attempt to find whatever food I could," Itachi only nodded, still not understanding where information gathering came into this, "One particular day, I had found a rather decent meal for my standards at the time and I was quite full. I happened to have found the meal in one of the trashcans in the Uchiha compound and coincidentally overheard your father's plans about the coup. So naturally, curious boy as I was at the time, I decided to tail the most powerful Uchiha I could think of."

Itachi looked at him like he was crazy. "You tailed me for three days without me noticing anything? Impossible. You may have learnt some stealth, but staying hidden from me for that long is laughable," Itachi sounded calm for someone so full of rage and turmoil.

"If there is one this I learnt about stealth, it's that the best way to hide is in plain sight. I transformed myself into a fly and hid in your hair for three whole days," Kisame looked skeptical while Itachi's face finally morphed into one of understanding. "It was hard going without food and water for three days, but that's only for a normal person. It was a piece of cake for me."

"So that fly was you. I always thought that it was too persistent to be a normal fly, but I never acted upon the notion. I was quite tense due to the circumstances at the time," Itachi got up and gave him a pat on the head, before sitting back down. "You are quite well informed about me considering you are still in the Academy."

"So you have no information on me?" Kisame whined, he almost sounded like a petulent child.

"Nothing on you Kisame Hoshigaki, other than the fact that you are an SS ranked missing-nin from the Village Hidden in the Mist, were formerly one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and are the weilder of Sadanaga, a Chakra consuming blade that looks more like a barbarian's club. You are also famed to have Chakra reserves comparable to that of the Nibi, the Two Tailed Beast." Naruto droned.

"Wow, for someone that says you don't have any information on me, you sure know a lot," Kisame muttered, disappointed that he wasn't as unknown to the blonde library as he once thought, "Tell me kid, where did you get the dirt on me?"

"A Bingo Book I found in a trashcan once, I still have it. It was one of the ones that included all the known criminals with all the known information on them, going from D rank all the way up to SS. I can only think it was for someone from ANBU Black Ops or an elite Jounin."

"Explains things," Itachi rejoined the conversation. "So, are you ready to accept my reasoning?"

"Right now? No. You still haven't told me why you are in my house."

Itachi let out a tired sigh. "Well, you were right. We were formerly members of Akatsuki, though the reason for us being here is that we have since left the organisation. The man that was running everything calls himself a God, and expects all of us to kneel to him. We are powerful ninja, all of us, and that doesn't sit well with us. So we decided to leave."

"Explains why you are here at the most. Why do you want to train me?" Naruto asked, his ever suspicious glare in place.

At this point in time, Itachi had resigned himself. "_This boy is too smart, way too smart to be the Dobe of the Academy. There is something missing in the picture, but one thing is clear; this kid is way smarter and stronger than he lets on._"

"The Akatsuki are planning on gathering the Bijuu and essentially take over the world. The two of us leaving puts a kink in their plans, but it's only bad enough to delay them. For us to truly counter them and stop their plans, we are planning on training you up to our level so they can't get their 'Godly' paws on you," Kisame said simply. Naruto nodded.

"Okay, for now, I will leave the Seals on you. I am going to go take a shower, get changed and head out," both of his guests looked confused. "You two are coming with me. I have an appointment with the Hokage in about half an hour now."

"Wait, are you trying to hand us in or something?" Kisame almost shouted.

"Kisame-san, please keep your voice down. I plan on doing no such things, the Hokage is an understanding man, and I don't plan on harboring SS ranked criminals in my house without his knowledge or approval," he paused for a second, "Though, if what you say is correct, there is no reason as to why you should be taken in. From what I know about the Hokage, he should have no problems with you living with me and as far as I am aware, he should be willing to take Kisame-san into are shinobi system, and re-instate Itachi-san in his former position."

"We shall see, but keep in mind we don't plan on getting discovered," Itachi tried to play the peacemaker, as always.

"Sure!" With that, Naruto was off to take his shower.

-TT-

"Remind me why we are like this." Kisame said, trying his best to keep his voice even and his sword from mauling the brat in front of him.

He was currectly disguised as a 14 year old boy with long, red hair and bright, silver eyes. He was wearing the traditional 'Kill me now' orange that was usually worn by the Uzumaki boy. His clothing, however, consisted of more plain tracksuit bottoms and a shirt, rather than a jumpsuit. At least that was a relief.

Itachi was faring better off than his partner, but not by much. He was disguised as a 13 year old girl, short, brown hair and soft hazel eyes. What annoyed him most was the bright bubblegum pink jacket he was wearing, and the yellow skirt that was brighter still. One of these days, he was going to turn the blonde into a stain in the sidewalk.

"Because you didn't want to get noticed, so I decided to disguise you in the attire that I thought most appropriate," he slowly headed out the front door, "You guys coming?"

Needless to say, both of the SS rank missing-nin were fuming at the 10 year old Academy student.

**A/R: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Sorry for leaving it at such an awkward place. I could have written more, but I decided to stop for now. I was getting tired of writing and me not writing a chapter in one sitting turns out very, very bad. The next chapter will start with the Hokage meeting scene, include some training and Academy time for Naruto and the Genin-turned-Academy-students.**

**2.6k, not counting the notes, while this is the longest Pathless chapter I have written so far, it is by no means the longest chapter I have ever written. I hope you enjoyed the longer chapter though, but I find it hard to keep the flow in anything longer than this and I'm started to get tired from sitting in one position.**

**Thank you to all those that reviewed so far. All I can say is that I really enjoy reading your reviews, and though I can't reply to them directly due to some circumstances making them too much of a bother, I try to reply to the more interesting ones indirectly in the Author Rants. It only takes half a minute to review and you don't even need an account, so please be so kind and leave a review.**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant=*=*=**

**Okay, I know in most Manga, the people near the end of the series are way stronger than at the beginning, but I still hate this in Naruto and it strikes me as an error.**

**Madara is resurrected by Kabuto, utterly beats the shit out of all five Kage at the same time and is hardly even fazed. He cuts down mountains and changes the landscape like it's easy as sleeping.**

**That isn't my problem, my problem is this. Near the beginning of the Manga, if you remember, Orochimaru's Hidden Sound Village and the Hidden Sand Village decided to attack Hidden Leaf Village. During that time, Orochimaru fought Sarutobi. What I fail to understand is why was Hashirama so damn weak, that even Sarutobi owned his ass, along with Tobirama, even though Hashirama is meant to be stronger than Madara? How is it that when Hashirama seemed to be tossing out some of his best Jutsu, the building they were on failed to even collapse? Forget mountains, he couldn't destroy a building.**

**So this is my problem: WTF? Why is Hashirama weaker as an Edo Tensei summon than Madara when Madara was supposed to be weaker in life?**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant End=*=*=**

**If you read the rant though you didn't wish to, please remember you were given ample notice from the very beginning. If you did read it wilfully, please be so kind and answer my question.**


	8. The Hokage's Reaction, new Jutsu

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: It never ceases to surprise me. 8 reviews in less than 12 hours and a total of 11 after the last update. That sure is impressive. I really have nothing to say, other than the fact that I decided to just full on answer reviews in the Rants section with the reviewers name because I can't think of anything better that isn't painfully boring for me.**

**Okay, so that takes up a lot more space than I thought. I have received no opinions on the matter regarding the behaviour of Sasuke or Sakura, so I shall proceed in a neutral manner. I now officially classify Naruto as soon to be Semi-Godlike. Meaning he won't be walking around taking people's souls, but he will probably Jounin level pretty soon. With a good explanation, of course. I don't plan on just doing things for the fun of it without actually explaining it. That of course includes the Seal at the very beginning of the story, which shall also be explained.**

**Ranting for too long. ALADEEN MOTHERFUCKERS! (Nobody got that one?)**

**On with the story!**

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop with some limited use of Chakra on Naruto's part and just pure muscle strength from Kisame and Itachi's. Though their appearences were severely altered, their muscle mass and strength were retained, much to their joy and Naruto's chagrin. He wanted to see them both fall down and destroy a couple buildings.

They were making good time on their way towards the Hokage Tower. Despite having no access to their Chakra, the SS rank missing nin were fast, and were seeming held behind by Naruto, who was sprinting over the buildings to the best of his current abilities. He didn't go about using Kyubi Chakra everywhere.

"Kisame-san, are you still annoyed about these Transformations?" Naruto asked the red head on his right, to which the red head only scowled up at him without giving an actual verbal response, "I'll take that as a yes."

"So, what do we do once we get to the Hokage? I assume you have a plan?" Itachi, the brown haired girl on his left, asked. He was anxious, to say the least, to meet the Hokage again. He hadn't exactly left on friendly terms with the Old Man.

"I have a meeting with the Old Man, once I get through with that, I plan on springing that fact about you two," Naruto seemed to think for a bit, "But I don't know if you will be allowed to stay for the meeting though, it might include some sensitive information."

"That's fine. We respect the Village's need for secrecy. We will sit it out if we need to." Itachi replied. Out of the pair of them, Itachi did most of the talking while Kisame did most of the slaughtering and threatening.

They travelled in silence for a while. Naruto didn't have the liberty to choose where he lived, so his apartment was quite far away from the Hokage Tower. Even via rooftops, it took a while for them to make the journey. Naruto was the first to break the silence.

"Out of curiosity, why were you guys sleeping on my couch? Seeing as you have been fugitives for so long, wouldn't one expect you to be on high alert at all times?"

"We travelled for a few days without rest. We were planning on just waiting up for you, but since you took so long, we ended up falling asleep," this time, it was Kisame that decided to answer. Surprisingly, his answer didn't involve murder. "The fact that the couch was comfortable helps too."  
Naruto's only reaction to this was a prompt sweatdrop that he soon wiped off.

They had arrived at the cylindrical tower where the Hokage resided and worked from. It served as the main operational base where all the main offices in the Village resided, including the Hokage's Office and the Missions Centre.

"Alright, let's go in through the window. I don't like doing in through the entire damn Tower, the glares and the shouting matches are too troublesome and I don't feel like dealing with them." Naruto muttered to his companions.

Walking up the side of the building with the use of Chakra, Naruto didn't notice that the other two didn't follow him. Walking up to the Hokage's window, he perched on the windowsill and looked down, seeing the two's predicament.

"I guess you guys can wait out here. I'll talk for you guys, that might be better to calm the Old Man's nerves." The two simply nodded up at him.

Going in through the window, he found the Hokage deep in conversation with what looked to be a Jounin with a navy blue facemask that covered most of his face up to the bridge of his nose. His hitai ite was slightly crooked, covering his left eye.

"Kakashi, it's about time you returned to full duty. I needed some reinforcements to my ranks soon. Someone as skilled as you would be a great help." Just then Naruto decided it was the perfect time to drop in and interrupt the party.

"You wanted to see me, Jiji?" Naruto asked, ignoring the cyclopean ninja for now.

"Yes, Naru-bou, give me a moment," Sarutobi turned towards Kakashi, "Go to the Mission Center, I have a mission ready for you." Kakashi silently nodded and shunshinned straight out of the chair.

Naruto walked around the Hokage and sat on the chair that his senior previously occupied. The mood instantly turned somber as the gravity of the situation caught up with Naruto.

"Well, first of all: I got a report saying that you were leaking Kyubi's Chakra in the hospital. Tell me Naru-bou, what was that about?" The Hokage asked. Naruto sighed, and proceeded to relay the story of what happened with Kurama.

Needless to say, Hiruzen Sarutobi was shocked beyond his ancient years. To think that the Kyubi, the Great Demon Lord, would take a liking to the boy and actually strike a bargain with him. It was a ridiculous idea.

As Naruto relayed more and more of the story, the Old Man's reactions started to become more and more pronounced. Starting with wide eyes, he quickly moved onto sweating, then shaking and beyond. Though, to his credit, he managed to not wet or soil himself.

"So let me get this straight, Naru-bou. You basically released the Seal that the cost us the life of our greatest hero, the Fourth Hokage, your father- ooops" Sarutobi quickly went silent. He was scared of what Naruto's reaction may be to finding out that it was his father that condemned him to a life in hell.

"It's fine, Jiji. I already know about Minato Namikaze being my father, though I am still curious to this time about who my mother was. Father made some references to my mother, though he never mentioned her name outright,"

"Right, you will have to tell me the story of how you found out about that at a later date. But anyhow, back to topic. You basically wasted his sacrifice and set the Kyubi free and then struck a bargain with him that he may or may not respect?" He sounded more incredulous than shocked. He learned from years of experience that Naruto wasn't the most predictable person in the world.

"Quite accurate."

"You shock me to no end."

"That isn't the end of it, I believe. Would you like me to introduce my guests in person or would you rather have me talk on their behalf?" The Hokage's eyes narrowed in suspicion. There was no way this child was going to surprise him any more than he had already done on this night.

"I think I would rather meet them."

"Very well," Naruto's voice was barely above a whisper, hardly audible to Sarutobi's old ears. Naruto stood up and walked around to the window. Not sparing the Old Man another glance, he jumped straight out of it.

Itachi and Kisame looked up to see Naruto walking towards them. Worldessly, he grabbed both of them around the back of the collar and walked back up to the Hokage's office. Neither of the missing nin voiced their opinions on Naruto's mode of transport, deciding to keep it to themselves.

"Well Naru-bou, I see nothing that could shock me so far..." Naruto decided to take his spot on the chair once again before responding, setting his guests on the chairs that were beside him.

"Oh, that's due to the fact that they are under the effect of my **Transformation Jutsu**." Looking towards his companions, he raised his hand in half a Seal. "**Release**!"

Both of their transformations went up in a poof of smoke. Once the smoke had cleared, both had returned to their original appearence, though Kisame was missing his dear great sword, Samehada.

Noticing Itachi and remembering the identity of Kisame from a Bingo Book, Sarutobi only pointed and sputtered. Shock was written all over his face, his eyes wide and his mouth opening and closing in a good imitation of a fish.

"What are you doing here?" Sarutobi roared, though he controlled his voice so that nobody outside his Office would become suspicious. The last thing he needed was to have some civillian clerk coming into his Office to see either of these two men.

Naruto and Kisame looked towards Itachi, as if expecting him to answer. The usually calm man looked slightly flustered, though he still explained about their sudden appearence in his Village.

"Basically, up until now, we were part of a secret organisation called Akatsuki. The person that leads the group calls himself a God and expects all of us to bow down to him. The two of us decided to leave the group, seeing as it didn't sit well with us," Itachi took in a breath before he started explaining about their plans. "Akatsuki plan to capture the Bijuu and eventually take over the world. The two of us leaving stalled their plans, but it's not a permanent solution. To resolve the issue permanently, we came here to train Naruto, the Kyubi's Jinchuriki in an attempt to permanently thwart their plans."

"What was your reason for coming here to train Naruto? Why not one of the other Jinchuriki?" Sarutobi asked, though the man had calmed down somewhat and was no longer roaring, he was still suspicious. Why wouldn't he be? He was sitting in front of men that could destroy nations if they so wished.

"There are several reasons. Naruto is the carrier of the strongest of the Bijuu. I am originally from this Village. This Village is the most accepting and has the most understanding leader," Itachi was done explaining to the Old Man, and now moved on to his requests. "We request that you allow Kisame to take up a position as a Jounin and allow me to take over my former position as an ANBU Captain. Also, please keep my return a secret from the rest of the Village. As for our residence, we can manage to stay with Naruto. Are these terms agreeable for our residence in the Village?"

Sarutobi sighed. On one hand, if this wasn't a trap, he would gain two very strong ninja for his rank and two personal tutors for Naruto. On the other hand, this could end up destroying the Village if it was a trap. The Hokage, old and trusting as he was, decided to believe it was the former.

"Alright. Come back here in a couple of days to pick up the paperwork for you to be instated into our ranks," Itachi, Kisame and Naruto all looked pleased. "And Itachi, welcome back to the Village."

-TT-

Beams of sunlight poured in through the open curtains, lighting the room in a warm, orange glow. The Sun was barely up over the horizon, but Naruto was already awake. It was going to be his first day back at the Academy after the break and it was going to his first day training with Kisame.

The Village had taken the news of Kisame joining the ninja ranks surprisingly well. They completely ignored the fact that he was formerly an SS ranked criminal and a part of an organisation that was planning on world domination. What they focused on was the fact that they would see a strong Jounin join their ranks.

Itachi and Kisame had decided to let the latter handle the basics of Naruto's training, like Taijutsu and Kenjutsu, since he was a better teacher for Naruto. Plus, he was better at those two subjects than Itachi anyway.

Itachi and Kisame had been living with him for a couple of weeks now, and they hadn't started their formal training just yet. Well, not the techniques and Jutsu portion, anyway. Itachi did, however, teach him a Jutsu to help him train faster.

_**-Flashback-**_

_Naruto had just walked into his apartment after a sweaty day at the training grounds. The students got a two week break after the Graduation Exams are over and Naruto was using his to train. Suddenly, Naruto found his way blocked by a hard body that was slightly taller than him and felt akin to a steel wall._

_Itachi stood there, looking at Naruto's sweaty, red face. He looked as if he was contemplating something, looking at him with his Sharingan active. Sharingan, not Mangekyo, so it wasn't as scary for the boy as it could have been._

_"Naruto, come outside with me to the training grounds for a while. I'll teach you a new Jutsu." Itachi said, but he didn't get the hyperactive response he was expecting._

_"Yes, Itachi-nii," Naruto mumbled, before walking back out the door he just came in from._

_-TT-_

_They were currently stood in training ground three, a small grounds used for drills and Taijutsu practice. Training dummies and wooden posts littered the training ground, some battered and in tatters while others looked brand new._

_"So Itachi-nii, what Jutsu did you want to show me?" Naruto asked, already tired from his day-long training session earlier. He had spent the last ten or so hours kicking away at a wooden post to improve his Taijutsu, and he wasn't exactly energetic after all of that._

_"**Shadow Clone Jutsu**," Itachi said in his monotonous, deep voice, though there was an underlying tone of humour, "I heard from the Academy teachers that you are terrible at the **Clone Jutsu** so I decided to teach you something better."_

_Naruto only sighed. Itachi was right, of course. Naruto was terrible at the **Clone Jutsu**, no matter how little Chakra he put in it, it would always overload and end up looking like a pale ghost that just finished emptying the entirety of its stomach and bowels. Including the intestines._

_Itachi, knowing Naruto learned better through experience and actually doing things, decided to give Naruto a demonstration. Putting his middle and index finger together, he crossed them over and muttered: "**Shadow Clone Jutsu**," and immediately, two clones appeared either on either side of him._

_Naruto copied exactly what he saw Itachi do, and manipulated his Chakra the same way he felt Itachi do it. Pushing Chakra out of his body, and manifesting it into a body similar to his own outside his own body. That's what he saw Itachi doing._

_"**Shadow Clone Jutsu**," something wasn't right. Naruto had Chakra reserves that rivalled Kages, so why was he feeling so drained from something so simple? Itachi had made two perfect clones and he didn't even look fazed. There was no way Naruto's Chakra control was so bad, was there?_

_Itachi chukled lightly. It was the first time Naruto heard him do such a thing, and frankly he was scared._

_"What's wrong?" Naruto asked._

_"Leave it up to a Jinchuriki to create two thousand clones on the first try."_

_Naruto looked around behind him to see a legion of clones stretching into the woods behind him. He promptly passed out from Chakra Exhaustion._

_**-Flashback End-**_

Naruto swung his legs over the edge of the bed and instantly felt heavy. He was still trying to get used to the weights that Kisame had made him wear starting a week and a half ago. He must have been insane, I mean, who started a 10 year old kids training by strapping twenty pound weights to each limb and thirty pounds on his torso? And he told him to not take it off even when he slept!

Naruto groaned. At first, he couldn't move an inch off the floor after the weights were strapped onto him, but now that he was slowly getting used to them, his movement started to become easier. Though it took some effort, he was now capable of walking, running, doing push ups and sit ups. That, however, was all that he was currently limited to.

His daily training schedule comprised of spending five hours doing non-stop running, an hour of rest, three hours of constant push ups and two hours of relentless sit ups. Kisame had said something about increasing base strength and stamina before beginning speed and actual technique training.

That on it's own, would have been an effective training schedule, but the added weights and the thousand clones that were training with him meant that he was actually training for ten thousand and ten hours a day. Normally, the physical fatigue and exhaustion would kill a normal ninja, seeing as dispelling a Shadow Clone not only returned the memories and results of training, but also the fatigue that had been built up through training.

Naruto, however, was alive and perfectly healthy, courtesy of the Fox that was sealed within him. Even though he did roughly 420 days worth of training in one day, a good night's sleep did wonders to revive him.

Walking over to the wardrobe on the other side of his room, he pulled out his 'Kill me now' orange jumpsuit. Naruto sighed, this was going to be a long day at the Academy.

**A/R: Another long chapter, this time 2.8k without the notes and review responses. I hope you enjoyed reading.**

**Sorry for not including the Academy scene into this chapter, but the chapter was getting kind of long and I wanted to end it. I will start out with the Academy scene next chapter.**

**If you enjoyed reading this chapter, please be so kind and leave a review. There is no need to have an account to review as anonymous reviews are accepted and all reviews are highly appreciated. Also, spread the love and let other's know about this story.**

**Not much to rant about this chapter, other than the fact that I haven't been receiving that many responses to the poll. If people don't tell me their opinion on the matter, I will just write things out my own way.**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant=*=*=**

**Personal Opinion Rant strikes again. This time, it is concerning how the character Naruto develops.**

**Near the beginning of the story, Naruto is utterly pathetic. He can't throw a kunai or a shuriken straight, he can't do a Clone Jutsu and he can't fight for shit. How is it that he is able to run the hell away from ANBU Black Ops with that kind of abysmal abilities?**

**Evasion skills. Right, so how does he run away? He has to be fast right? Then why the hell is he so slow in sparring matches? Why is it that Rock Lee can be an awesome dude with non-existent amounts of Chakra through sheer hard work, whereas Naruto's hardwork seems to do nothing?**

**Is it just me, or is Masashi Kishimoto completely and utterly incapable of maintaining any sense of fluidity in his work?**

**Next, during his Academy years, hard work does nothing. Then, as soon as he graduates, he suddenly becomes almost as strong as Sasuke. WTF!? Random power boost? Sure, you got Shadow Clones, but it's not like he was using them to train yet. Then how is it that he suddenly became so strong? Because he went all berserko-emo on himself and stabbed his hand?**

**If he is so bad at Chakra control, how is he able to master the Rasengan through NORMAL training, when NORMAL training did jack shit for him while he was in the Academy?**

**IT MAKES NO SENSE!**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant End=*=*=**

**Again, if you read the rant though you didn't wish to, please remember you were given ample notice from the very beginning. If you did read it wilfully, please be so kind and answer my question, the last ones were interesting to say the least. Also, if you have something negative to say that isn't backed up with cold hard facts, then keep that opinion to yourself. By that, I mean opinions such as "Shut up! You know nothin, Masashi Kishimoto is a God and he can't do anything wrong!" Those responses are just plain annoying.**


	9. Back to the Academy

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Thanks to all those that reviewed. The review responses shall be at the bottom section of the chapter.**

**Meh, Ill rant. The amount of hits I'm getting on this story is starting to seem unreal to me. While I didn't get as many reviews on chapter 8 as I did on chapter 7, I'm still getting a good amount of reviews considering I updated a few chapters in bulk. All in all, I am baffled by how well this story is doing on reviews, hits, alerts and favourites.**

**On with the story!**

Naruto was walking through the Village's main street, his destination being the Ninja Academy. Well, stomped might be the more appropriate word. He couldn't exactly walk like a normal ninja while he was wearing all the weights he was wearing.

Naruto hated walking down the main street. Everyone either stared at him in disdain or just glared, some chucked small pieces of rotten fruits. While it was slowly became rarer as he became older, some people also thought it appropriate to beat him.

The fact that he was wearing his usual 'Kill me now' orange jumpsuit did not help. Being a ninja and all, he was meant to be stealthy and not stand out. His attire, however, did the exact opposite and make him stand out like a sore thumb from the crowd, whose attire usually consisted of duller colours like grey.

Truthfully, Naruto hated his attire. He didn't like orange at all, but he still wore it in an attempt to keep up his cheerful persona. After he had released the Seal on himself on that fateful night, he had found that several old traits had left him, being replaced by new ones. Gone was the old cheerful boy, replaced by a calm, calculating young man that was always alert.

He still retained some of his old self though, the happy aura, the innocent smile. Just because he wasn't going around pranking the Villagers every day didn't mean that he was a completely different person. He may have changed, but he was in no shape or form a brooder. He hated those kinds of people.

'My life sucks so I'm going to take revenge." What kind of ideal was that for someone to live by? Naruto was calculating, he understood what revenge brought. People that sought revenge became powerful, but all they ever managed to bring to the world was hate and evil, breeding more and more thoughts of revenge until the world was consumed in an inferno of rage.

He didn't want that kind of life, living only to kill someone or to overthrow a certain power, it made no sense to him. Sure, it will give you a purpose to live by for a short while, but what will you do after that goal was accomplished? What will you do after you have had your revenge?

Regret.

That's all that revenge will bring you, along with sadness and despair.

These were the philosophical thoughts that ran through the young boys mind when, absentminded as he was at the time, he ran into a pink wall of soft flesh. He knocked the person over and ended up sprawled over the back of the said person, on the floor.

Coming out of his reverie, Naruto realised the unfavourable situation he was in right now. He was spread eagled over Sakura, the top kunoichi in his ninja class, on the floor on main street, with hundreds of people staring.

Ino Yamanaka laughed hysterically as she looked over at his predicament, though she wasn't laughing at Naruto. She was laughing at Sakura Haruno, her somewhat of a love rival for the love of Sasuke Uchiha, the class prodigy and resident emo. Sadly, though, Sasuke payed absolutely no attention to the hoarde of fangirls he had accumulated over the years.

"See, Sakura. You should take Naruto and be happy with him, Sasuke is way out of your league," Ino was just trying to egg her on, it was a normal thing for the girls to argue over Sasuke, though neither had a hope of woeing his heart.

Naruto got off the girl hastily, muttering an apology he knew would be ignored. Rather than try to explain, he just braced for the pain he knew was going to come. Normally, he would block a strike so slow, but he couldn't do a single thing against her with all those weights strapped to him.

"Don't attack me, Baka!" With that, Sakura began her hateful treatment of his blonde head, treating him to her best punches. Which, admittedly, weren't all that soft.

-TT-

Naruto was sitting in his seat at the back of the class, nursing his bruised head. It didn't hurt as bad as the soreness from training for ten thousand and ten hours in the space of ten hours, but it still hurt. Sakura had given him a pretty good beating this time around, for no reason whatsoever. Again.

People would often beat him in his younger days, though as he grew older the civilians stayed further and further away from him. He didn't know why, but they seemed to become apprehensive of him, sometimes muttering something about 'The Demon is getting stronger, he'll kill us if we go near him.'

That was something about the Villagers that he didn't understand, as intelligent as he had recently become. They always treated him as if he was Kurama, even though it was pretty obvious the Demon Lord and he were two completely different entities. Were they blind? Probably, seeing how angry they were.

"_**Not everyone can be a saint like you, brat. When I was forced to attack this Village under that Genjutsu, I killed a lot of their family members. They can't get revenge on me for killing them, so they do the next best thing and attack you, the container. It's a miracle you're as purehearted as you still are, brat.**_" It wasn't often that Kurama spoke to him, but when he did, he was there either to make a point, or make fun of Naruto, something the Fox enjoyed wholeheartedly.

"_I understand why they do it, Kurama-nii. I'm not an idiot, but understanding their reasons doesn't make it any less frustrating,_" Naruto thought back to his tenant through his mental link. He cut the link as Iruka stepped into the class, hearing Kurama laugh heartily as his voice faded from his mind.

"Hello, class, it's nice to see you again," nobody paid any attention to Iruka, favouring their own quiet conversations over paying attention to their teacher. Iruke used his **Big Teacher Head Jutsu** and started screaming to get his students' attention, "**QUIET YOU BRATS!**"

The result was immediate, everyone shut their mouths and turned ot the front of the class and payed rapt attention to Iruka. They knew he meant business as soon as he started using that Jutsu to get them to quiet down.

"Alright, most of you are probably wondering why you are back here," at this, everyone but Naruto nodded in agreement. He was the only one that was aware of the situation with the traitor within the Academy teachers. "While you already passed the Academy's Graduation Exam, you have been held back for an extra six months for supplementary lessons. Due to some corruption and foul play among the teachers, the amount you students learned is under scrutiny from the Hokage and the Ninja Council. They want you to stay back an extra six months to make sure that you learned everything to the standard that is expected of Leaf Gennin."

As soon as Iruka was done with his explanation, many hands rose up in the air. Though their teacher hadn't asked if they had any questions, they knew that Iruka would always try to answer any questions they had for him. Among these hands were Sakura's eager one.

"So sensei, what happens after the six months are over? Do we take a test of some sorts or go straight into Ninja duty?" Sakura asked curiously, she wanted to know why this kind of an exeption was made for them. Though she was no stranger to special treatment due to her mother's presence in the Civilian Council, she was still stranger to special treatment that affected her negatively.

"You will retake the Graduation Exam." Everyone looked at him with murder in their eyes. "But anyhow, onto today's first lesson. Tree climbing."

Everyone shouted out a form of verbal complaint, ranging from "But sensei, we already know how to climb trees," to "Hnn, the Uchiha don't climb trees. That kind of thing is reserved for monkeys."

Iruka sighed. Obviously, his students were too closed minded to see the truth behind his words. Deciding to stop the riot that was threatening to break out within his classroom, he started to speak out, only to be interrupted by the last person he was expecting to understand the exercise.

"Fools, who said you will be climbing trees normally? Tree climbing is an exercise used to increase your Chakra control," everyone looked at him like he had grown a second, third and fourth head. Sighing, Naruto continued, "You focus your Chakra to your feet so you stick to the tree trunk. You climb the tree with your feet and Chakra only."

"And this helps us improve our Chakra control by?" Kiba was the one that spoke up and he wasn't the most polite person in the class. At least, that's what was suggested through the tone of his voice.

"The feet are where it is hardest to focus your Chakra. By learning to stream a steady amount of Chakra to your feet to climb the tree, you ineveitably increase your ability to mold and control your Chakra." Iruka finished off his student's explanation, "Thanks for bailing me out there, Naruto."

"No problem," Naruto only grinned at his teacher, as he often did with Iruka around. He was his favourite teacher for a reason, and that reason was that Iruka happened to be one of those very few blessed people that weren't idiotic enough to hate him for something that was totally out of his control.

"Alright class, I want you to go outside in an orderly fashion and find a tall tree to climb." Everyone did as instructed by their teacher, and filed out in an orderly fashion, starting from the front of the class. Naruto, obviously, ended up right at the back and near his lazy friend Shikamaru.

-TT-

An hour had barely passed since Naruto and his class had headed outside to train on their Chakra control and it wasn't going well for most of them. Some people with larger Chakra reserves were still running full pelt at their designated trees, while others lay at the foot of their tree, completely exhausted. A few were passed out cold.

They had come out to the playground expecting an easy climb up a tree. What they had found was an utter impossibility that a few of them could even come close to getting right. Within a few attempts, most of them had found out just how hard it was to climb a tree without the use of their arms.

Instructions were to run all out at the trees, then attach themselves using Chakra while they ran up the tree. While most had blindly followed this instruction, they were unaware of the consequences their actions brought with them.

A few feet up the tree, most of them had either slipped off the tree due to using too small an amount of Chakra to hold them there, or because, like Sasuke, they had used too much Chakra and that pushed them off the tree trunk.

Thinking quickly, Sasuke was the only one that managed to mark how far up he had gotten with a kunai. Falling back down the tree, he landed heavily, though still on his feet. Others weren't as lucky, and landed either on their back and the really unlucky ones landed painfully on their heads.

All was not lost for the class though, a few of their classmates had managed to climb up quite far up the tree. They had managed to mark how far up they had gotten with their kunai and land on their feet every time they fell off.

This group was very small, however, and consisted only of the top kunoichi in the class, Sakura Haruno, the lazy genius, Shikamaru Nara and surprisingly Hinata Hyuga and Naruto.

Most people expected Sakura to do well in this, she had a small Chakra reserve and that gave her superb control over her Chakra, for an Academy student that is. Shikamaru was also expected to do well, though he slept during most of their lessons and watched the clouds while he was meant to train, the brunette had brains far better than anyone in the class and was pretty good at the less physical aspects of Academy life.

The last two of the group were unexpected to say the least. Hinata was shy. Though she was the heiress of the current strongest Clan in the Village, she was widely known as someone that was weak and subpar in her abilities. Seeing her climb the tree with relative ease was something of a shocker to her classmates.

Naruto. If people were surprised to see Hinata climbing the tree, they were utterly flabbargasted at what was happening with Naruto. He was the Dobe of the Academy, the Dead Last, the one that came out at the bottom of every test. So, imagine their surprise when he walked up the tree, going higher than everyone else in the class.

When landing, thud that most people landed on the floor with, Naruto landed with somewhat of a loud booming sound, courtesy of the weights he was currently wearing, which surprised most people.

This carried on for the rest of the day, with everyone slowly improving how far up the tree they could climb and getting closer and closer to Chakra Exhaustion.

-TT-

Naruto had gone straight to training ground three after his classes at the Academy was finished. Truly, they had stepped up their training in the Academy, but it was still nowhere near enough to tire out the Jinchuriki.

Naruto was planning on doing his usual training with his clones, when he saw Kisame standing there with his arms folded over his chest.

"Naruto, come over here." Naruto obeyed his teacher, for that's what Kisame was to him now, and walked up to him. "From today onwards, we start your Taijutsu lessons. Kenjutsu will come after you have masatered the basics of my Taijutsu course."

"Right, make two thousand five hundred clones," Naruto stared at him. "Make two thousand five hundred clones, Naruto."

"But wouldn't that many clones training at once kill me?" Naruto asked, scared for his life for the first time. He came close to death quite a few times in his life, but never before was he actually scared of it.

"Don't worry. We are cutting your training time by half, to five hours per day, since you have to go to the Academy now. That means the increase in clones only adds an extra two thousand and five hundred hours of training per day," the colour slowly returned to Naruto's face.

Crossing his fingers in the familial Seal, he muttered: "**Shadow Clone Jutsu**," and immediately, the entire area was filled with Naruto lookalikes, though there was a small clearing between the real Naruto and Kisame.

"Alright, your first combination. It's basic, but in a fight, it does the job. Left jab, right straight and a left rounhouse," as he spoke he gave Naruto a slow example of what the combination should look like. His arms and legs moved gracefully as he punched and kicked the air around him. "You try it."

Naruto tried to copy what Kisame did, but something felt wrong. He wasn't producing the same kind of destructive force that Kisame had produced, and his suspicions were confirmed by a shake of the head from Kisame.

"No, Naruto, you can't stop betwen each hit. It's a combination, meaning you hit one after the other. If you stop, you kill the momentum in your movement. Try again."

Naruto did the motions again, going through them with much more fluidity this time. They felt stronger somehow, but he felt like something was still wrong. His hits were more powerful, but it didn't feel sharp or fast.

"Better, but still not good enough. You're standing on the spot while you're hitting. Once you hit your opponent, he's not going to stand on the spot is he? No, he's gonna get knocked back. Rather than standing on the spot you should jab, pivot on your left foot and step in with your right foot while you do the right straight. Straight after the straight, you use the momentum, pivot on your right foot and bring your left foot around to kick. Try again."

He followed his instructions to a T, his punches seemed fine, but something was up with his kicks. When he pivoted on his right leg, he felt like he was falling backwards diagonally.

"Almost there. Straighten out your right leg when you pivot. Don't lean back when you're kicking, keep your back straight and raise your hips. Rather than going for their head, go for their ribs."

Naruto nodded and did the motions for a fourth time, getting it right at last.

"Good, practice for five hours with the clones, then head back home," while speaking, he slowly faded out in a white, misty glow.

"I COULD DO WITHOUT THE THEATRICS!" Naruto screamed after him as he shunshinned away from the clearing.

Ordering his legion of clones to get in lines, he started his daily practice, no longer feeling the effects of his weights.

**A/R: Is it just me, or are the chapters slowly getting longer? And am I starting to make more mistakes and not paying attention to them? Weird.**

**Anyhow, thanks for reading. If you liked this chapter, please take the time to leave a Review, Alert or Favourite this story. It really helps me out. Also, if you REALLY liked this story, please share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook or via E-mail. If this story was enjoyable, why not share the love?**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant=*=*=**

**I hope people don't take this section of my story offensively. I use this section to voice my personal opinions on what parts of the story I find retarded.**

**Subject this time around, IS EVERYONE IN THE NARUTOVERSE AN EMO?!**

**Naruto: Oh my God, I have a Demon sealed in me. Everyone in the world hates me and beats me, I have no place to go. I am going to be Hokage so everyone can recognise me, until then, I shall brood in my corner in an attempt to forget my pain and get stronger. Believe it! I will promise on the pain of my right hand to protect all that is dear. No, I lied, I just stabbed myself because it feels good.**

**Conclusion: Emo.**

**Sasuke: Oh my God, my entire family was killed by my own brother. My brother that I loved, but he killed all of them. What should I do? Should I try to see the truth and save my brother from the hell he is in, or just be an Emo-King and brood until I can kill him? Hnn, I shall slash my wrist to be an emo.**

**Conclusion: Emo.**

**Sakura: Oh my God, Sasuke is so hot with his brooding. Rather than trying to train, I will stay weak and look at him with my massive forehead, and pretend he is the best in the world even though Naruto is pwning him through the Author's powers. I will look at Sasuke's back while he is leaving the Village and cry fake tears because I am retarded.**

**Conclusion: Emo.**

**Kakashi: Oh my God, Obito and Sensei were killed in battle. Now, I shall waste away my life looking at a stone and pretending to wallow in my sorrows while I waste time and talent by just standing here. I will cover up my face and pretend to be a good ninja while I just brood.**

**Conclusion: Emo.**

**Anyone see a pattern here? I would include some others too, like Gaara and Sarutobi, but I am kinda bored of this. Is it just me, or is the Narutoverse full of emos hiding under masks of awesomeness?**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant End=*=*=**

**Is it just me, or am I actually bringing up legitimate points about the Narutoverse that people usually overlook?**

**Comments are appreciated, random flames are not.**


	10. Graduation and Zaraki Kenpachi

**The Pathless Sage**

**_Beta read by 'I before A except after K'_  
**

**A/R: Surprisingly, I have returned to my original reason for not sticking to just reading, but writing as well. You got it people, I am so damn bored that I am writing like a freaking maniac again.**

**I'm really surprised to see nobody got where the ALADEEN MOTHERFUCKERS! came from.**

**On with the story!**

It had been six months since the start of the supplementary Academy classes had begun for the ten year olds. Naruto had been progressing quite well. His Chakra reserves resembled that of two Kage combined, thanks to the combined efforts of both the Kyubi and his Uzumaki heritage, his Genjutsu and Ninjutsu were quite strong for someone still in the Academy (especially his defensive ninjutsu), his Kenjutsu was still subpar since Kisame handn't gotten around to training him and his Taijutsu was the best in the Village.

Yep, Naruto Uzumaki had officially surpassed Maito Guy and the Hokage at Taijutsu. He was constantly training under Kisame with a very large number of clones at his disposal, so right now, Naruto had a total training time of two hundred and sixty years, give or take a few months. That was just the pure amount of training time though, it didn't factor in time to sleep so truthfully, it would equal to something around five hundred years of hardcore Taijutsu training under Guy.

Not only had he trained with his clones so much that his technique had become near flawless, he was also training with over three hundred pounds worth of weights on, though that was still unknown to him. He was under the impression he was still wearing hundred and ten pounds, not knowing that Itachi had added small amounts of weight to his existing weights every night while he slept. It was small enough that he didn't notice the change, but large enough that once it was accumulated over a long time, it would make him very, very fast.

While walking down the road, he noticed a newcomer walking down the main street. He looked about to be about Naruto's age, but he was really tall (easily 5"9) so Naruto couldn't be sure. He wore what looked to be remnants of a simple black kimono, though it could hardly be called anything but remnants since it was so tattered, and had a katana strapped to his right hip, though from the length of the blade, it looked more like a Nodachi.

He looked muscular, but somehow gangly, with long black hair that looked wiry and was swept back roughly. He had a pouch for ninja tools on his right thigh, so Naruto could guess he was right handed. From the angle he was standing at, the boy looked underfed and malnourished.

Naruto decided to ignore the boy for now, but from the corner of his eye, he could see the Villagers giving him the very same glare they reserved solely for him. That got Naruto's attention, and he decided to ask the boy why something like that would happen if he ever met him again.

-TT-

Usually, Naruto would sit near the back of the room so he could pretend to be asleep, while he actually paid rapt attention to what happened in class. Though people usually didn't believe him, he was actually quite interested in learning.

However, this one September morning found Naruto seeking a seat beside a certain lavender haired Clan heiress. Why? Because he had noticed her stalking him for the past four months, though he was sure it was happening for much, much longer, and frankly he wanted answers as to why she was stalking him. Did she like him, or was she just plain creepy?

As he sat down on the only seat next to the Hyuga girl (she was sitting on the outer edge of the bench designed for three people, so Naruto was sitting in the middle seat) he saw her start and heard her let out a small "Eep!" though it was so quiet, he might as well have imagined it. He didn't know why, but she seemed to be cowering even more into herself than usual.

Deciding to go right into the questioning, seeing as nobody but the stoic Shino was in class yet. He turned to her, intent on finding out answers, but lost himself in her pupil-less eyes. Was she always so beautiful, or were his eyes playing tricks on him?

Breaking out of his stupor with a sudden shake of the head, he thought it best to get the questioning over and done with before he got a bigger audience for his interrogation.

"Hinata-san, why have you been stalking me for the past four months?" Naruto asked tentatively, not sure as to how the shy girl would react to being directly confronted.

"I-it's not b-been o-o-only f-four months ..." Hinata stuttered quietly, but due to his enhanced senses from being a Jinchuriki, he heard every word perfectly.

"Okay ... how long have you been stalking me for? And, please don't stutter. You have nothing to fear," Naruto reassured, hoping that kindness mellowed the girl out enough to get him some honest answers.

"It has been four years, since we started in the Academy," Hinata replied, forcing away her stutter and willing her blush away, though her voice still stayed quiet. She could never get over her shyness, something her father had ensured by his mistreatment of her.

"Okay, so you have been stalking me for the past four years. Why? What do you see in me that drives you to stalk one such as myself?" Naruto asked, somewhat afraid of the answer he was going to get.

It took a while to explain everything, but she told Naruto of her treatment at the hands of her father and the Main Branch of her family, how Naruto embodied the determination she seeked, how he was her ray of hope, and how she liked him.

"Thanks Hinata, you're the first girl that said something like that to me," Naruto hugged her lightly, not noticing the dark crimson blush that crept slowly up her face.

Shino's bugs buzzed lightly and he smiled lightly under the oversized collar of his trench coat, while Hinata promptly fainted.

-TT-

Iruka came into the class an hour or so later to find it a rowdy bunch of newly passed students chattering loudly amongst themselves. "_Weird, they're usually chatty, but they aren't that loud. Must be their excitement over finally being able to graduate. Well, they earned it, most of them passed the Graduation Exam twice!_" Iruka thought proudly, reminiscing about how hard his students had trained over the past six months.

_**-Flashback- **_**(Hey! I might have decided to time-skip, but I ain't just gonna hand em powerful techniques without explaining them somehow!)**

_The class Iruka Umino had been in charge of was excited. They had been taking his supplementary classes for just about two months now, so they were excited about this 'cool move' Iruka was going to show his class. Honestly, it had been hard work, but they had made much more progress during these two months of catch-up classes than they had ever done in the Academy._

_Iruka walked into the class to find a bunch of ten year olds looking at him expectantly, rather than chatting amongst themselves like they usually would. He chuckled, his trick of telling them he would be teaching them something interesting got their attention really fast._

_"Alright class, today I am teaching you Nature Manipulation," combined shouts of "COOL!" came from his class, as he almost held his ears in pain. Years of duty as a ninja made his hearing quite sensetive._

_Iruka walked over to each of his students and handed out what looked like small bits of paper. After he had handed everyone a medium sized square, he went back to his desk and went into full lecture mode._

_"Before I teach you anything about Nature Manipulation, I am going to give you a lesson on them so you know what you are getting into," at this, everyone except Sasuke and Naruto groaned out loud, even the stoic Shino managed a small sound of displeasure. "Of course I am, you didn't think you would get away without a lecture from me, did you?"_

_"No, sensei!" The class chorused simultaneously._

_Iruka giggled softly like a schoolgirl and went into his explanation. "There are five basic forms of Elemental Chakra. I say basic because it is possible to combine them later on through extreme control or Bloodline Limits, but that is far beyond the capability of Academy students. Anyhow, people have a genetic affinity to a certain Element, which is the easiest for them to master. Due to the high amount of Chakra that is needed to use Elements, very few ninja are capable of using more than two Elements."_

_"The Elements are balanced in a circle. Each Element is stronger against one, but weaker against another. This is the natural order of the Elements. When two Jutsu of the same Element collide, the one with more Chakra in it will win. However, if there is a perfectly equal amount of Chakra in the two Jutsu, then they will just cancel each other out. This is known as the Rule of Counterbalance."_

_Normally, when Iruka gave them lectures, half of the class fell asleep. This time around, he could see everyone paying close attention, even Naruto and Shikamaru._

_"So what does the paper have anything to do with this?" Ah, leave it to the class genius Shikamaru to ask the million pound question._

_Iruka chuckled. "These papers are specially made from Chakra trees, these Chakra papers react to the slightest amount of Chakra. The way they react tell you what kind of Chakra you have an affinity to," he held up a piece of paper much like the ones he gave to his class, only a second later it burst into flames and burnt to ashes. "I have an affinity to fire, so my paper burns away. If you have an affinity to wind, it will be slashed to pieces, water will dampen the paper, lightning will crumple it slightly and earth would crumble it to small pieces of dirt."_

_The class eagerly tested out their Chakra Natures, while shouting out their affinities gleefully. A large portion of the class had an affinity to fire, seeing as this was the Land of Fire they were born in._

_"Erm, Iruka-sensei, it seems I have an affinity to all five Elements," Naruto called, displaying a row of five rectangular strips of paper that showed the five different reactions Chakra paper was supposed to have upon coming in contact with Chakra._

_"Well, it seems you have. No matter, it's rare, but it's possible for a person to have more than one affinity. Though all five is a shocker though, that's a great gift you have there Naruto." Iruka called, he was rather calm considering his student just demonstrated a feat not seen within the last hundred years. (**Lies, Nagato can do the same thing, and they're almost from the same generation**)_

_"Now, what I am going to teach you are basic D rank Elemental Jutsu. They are all defensive Jutsu, so there will be no fighting eachother to test your Jutsu out, am I understood?" Iruka asked the class in general, to be answered by a chorus of "Yes, Iruka-sensei!"_

_"Good," Iruka handed each of them Jutsu scrolls based on their Chakra affinities, though he handed the Uchiha two, upon strict orders from the Civilian Council to hand him the lightning scroll regardless of what his affinity was, and fire scroll if his affinity was lightning, and he also handed Naruto one of all five of the scrolls, courtesy of his affinities being numerous._

_"Now get out into the playground, and practice your Jutsu!"_

_**-Flashback End-**_

Iruka smiled, remembering how Naruto had been the first to not only master one of the Jutsu, but all five of them before one of his classmates finished mastering one of them. Over the four months that he had spent practicing the techniques, he had also found a nifty trick that increased the strength of the Jutsu.

Snapping out of his reverie, he decided to humour his students and use the **Big Teacher Head Jutsu** for the last time on his class.

"**SHUT UP YOU BRATS!**" Iruka yelled, feigning anger despite being pleased with his class. "You all passed your Graduation Exams and are now Gennin. I will announce the teams and your new Jounin sensei. They should be here to pick you up after lunch."

Iruka proceeded to announce the names of all the fodder teams, meaning teams 1-6.

"Team 7: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno-" Iruka was cut off by a huge shout of glee and another of outrage.

"**YAAAYY**"

"**NOOOO**" Cookies for guessing correctly who these two individuals were.

"-And Zaraki Kenpachi. Your sensei is Kakashi Hatake." Iruka finished, as if he hadn't just been rudely interrupted. At his announcement, many looked confused. Who was this Zaraki kid? He certainly wasn't part of their class. Catching their looks of befuddlement, Iruka decided to enlighten them. "He is an orphan that has been enrolled into the ninja system recently and has been taking personal catch-up classes on his own. He has passed the Graduation Exam due to sheer skill in Taijutsu and Kenjutsu. Ah, here he comes now-"

And lo behold, a tall raven haired kid entered the class with a sword strapped to his side. It was the same kid he had seen in the street when coming to the Academy, Naruto realised, and he looked quite scary from the front.

"Hope I ain't late, I kinda got stuck on the roads," Iruka, knowing his reputation for getting into fights, just waved him on. He took the only available seat in the class, which happened to be next to Naruto.

Naruto didn't bother talking to him, seeing as he wasn't talking to him, but it was kind of uncomfortable having people stare at the new student next to him, who decided it was a wise choice to wrap his hitai ite around his hand so that the metal protected the back of his hand. Weird, his hitai ite seems smaller than normal.

"Team 8: Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga. Your sensei is Kurenai Yuhi," no surprises there, Konoha had been looking for a good specialised tracking squad for a while, though the perverted leer that Kiba sent Hinata's way was quite infuriating to a certain Jinchuriki for reasons unknown to himself. "Team 9 is still active, so Team 10: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi. Your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." No surprises there either, the Ino-Shika-Cho team.

"Wait a second," Naruto called, "Aren't you forgetting something? Who am I with?"

"Naruto, due to you being the Dead Last, you have been assigned a personal sensei. You are alone on a team with Kisame Hoshigaki." Naruto scowled, why was he the only one with a one man team? Well, at least he had Kisame to bail him out if need be.

"What a drag ..." Naruto drawled, making his best friend Shikamaru smirk. He was starting to rub off on the young blonde.

-TT-

It was three hours later than the appointed time for their Jounin sensei to come pick them up, all of the other squads were gone, other than Naruto. Who was this Kakashi, and why was he so late? And what the hell was that annoying tapping sound that kept grating on his nerves?

"Baka, will you stop?" Sakura exclaimed, smashing Naruto over the head with a fist. Naruto immediately halted the pencil he didn't notice he had been tapping and muttered a small apology.

"Why let her bash you around?" A deep, gravelly voice asked. Looking around, Naruto saw that the newcomer had spoken for the first time in the long day. "You are obviously stronger than her, so why are you letting her do something like that?"

"Zaraki, right?" Naruto asked, not bothering with the customary honorifics. Zaraki only nodded slightly. "Don't worry about it, I'm the Dead Last of the Academy, so even though I want to, I can't actually do anything about her beating me up."

"_What the hell? He's obviously lying through his teeth. No way in heaven or hell is he weak enough to get beaten around by a fangirl._" Before Zaraki could make his feelings known, though, he was interrupted by a door opening and two men walking through the door.

"KISAME! YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto roared at his sensei.

"Oh, I got Naruto. They told me I had to train the Dead Last, but the idiots obviously just handed me the cream of the crop." Kisame mused out loud, not bothering to reply to his student's accusations.

"Sorry guys, Kisame and I got talking ... so we kinda lost track of time," Kakashi interrupted the rabid fangirl, who was obviously about to make some remark about Sasuke being the best and Naruto being the worst. "Meet me on the roof." And with that, Kakashi was gone in a swirl of leaves.

"Seeing as you're not in an actual team, you get to skip the team test. You can start taking missions from tomorrow, I'll give you a note so you can take as many missions as you want without me being there." What annoyed Naruto wasn't the fact that his sensei left right after he said this, but all the while he was saying this, he was slowly vanishing in wisps of mist.

"DAMMIT! STOP DOING THAT WEIRD VERSION OF THE SHUNSHIN!" Naruto roared, apparently at thin air, though he got a creepy chuckle as a reply.

-TT-

Naruto was in the Mission Center, with a scroll in his hand that was given to him by Kisame. He remembered what Kisame had told him the night before and scowled for a second.

"_I have taught you all the Taijutsu I can. Technically, since I'm your official sensei now, I'm not allowed to teach you Kenjutsu until you are a Chunin. So, since you're a ninja now, go do some D Rank missions, make some cash and enjoy life a bit more._"

True, he hadn't had much money to enjoy his life with. He was given an allowance by the Hokage to live on, but it was just about enough to pay for his housing and buy food to live off of. Of course, Itachi and Kisame paying for their food and shouldering a portion of the household expenses helped, but it still wasn't enough to truly enjoy life. It was only enough for him to get some better food.

So now here he was, in the Mission Center, determined to make some money. He looked absently to the chart that hung behind the Chunin on duty, showing how much money was paid for standard missions.

**SS Rank - £500,000  
S Rank - £100,000  
A Rank - £25,000  
B Rank - £1,000  
C Rank - £250  
D Rank - £10**

Needless to say, Naruto was surprised by the sudden increase in pay rise from B Ranks and higher, but he knew that new Gennin weren't allowed anywhere near them. He might have been strong enough to do one, but the Village didn't know that.

Walking over to the Chunin, he started asking questions about the mission procedures. Tezuka was more than happy to explain to Naruto, seeing as he was a fellow ninja and he held nothing against the boy.

"Basically, you take a mission, complete it and get the mission scroll signed. If the client has any extra comments to make, they can write it into the scroll. If they want to give the Gennin a bonus, they can just give the money to your team directly. The money for the actual pay is paid directly into the ninja's account in the Ninja Bank. Though that makes me ask, where is your sensei or your team?" Tezuka asked, curiously.

As a reply, Naruto just gave him the signed scroll with a small note inside.

"_I, Kisame Hoshigaki, give permission for my Gennin team, comprised of: Naruto Uzumaki, to do missions on his own without my supervision. I also allow him to take as many missions as he wants at a time._"

"I see ..." Tezuka mused.

"Alright, Tezuka-san, can I get two hundred D rank missions with standard pay?" Naruto asked with a steely glint in his eye. Tezuka had a hell of a lot of paperwork to do to sign out all those missions.

"...Right. I will be seeing you in a few months." Naruto took the large stack of scrolls outside, but not before leaving a parting comment.

"I'll see you at the end of the day."

Outside, Naruto summoned up a thousand clones and arranged them in teams of ten. Giving out two scrolls to each team leader, he started giving out

"Alright, I want you to go around and finish off one mission at a time. Once you have finished the mission, get the scroll signed and dispel all clones other than the leader. The leader will then come in and give the scrolls to the clone I leave here, and then dispel. The clone I leave here will give in the scrolls once all scrolls have been collected, then dispel." Naruto made another clone stand outside the Mission Center. "GO!" All of his teams headed out.

Naruto headed to Ichiraku's, it had been a while since he visited.

**A/R: -sobs- Why people no review? With the hit counts as high as they are, even if I got one review for every 100 hits, I should still be getting 30+ reviews per chapter? Why people be so stingy?**

**Kiddin'! :P Anyhow people, I'm happy with so many reviews, but that doesn't mean I don't want more. Greed is said to be a sin, but Greed is a necessity for advancement, for it is Greed that compells humans to better themselves.**

**Please review, favourite and alert this story, it really helps me out and encourages me to write. Spreading the word with family and friends brings more attention to the story, increases the reader base and also really helps me out.**

**Question though, do you guys want to see the Wave arc or not? I really want to because I have awesome Inari-bashing in mind, but I will skip it if you guys want me to ...**

**3.5k, quite a long chapter by Pathless standards.**

**Original Jutsu:**

**Earth/Lightning/Fire/Wind/Water Wall**

**D Rank (potentially B Rank), Defensive**

**Basic walls of their Elemental Chakra that provides small amounts of protection from enemies from all angles, though the strength of the Jutsu can be increased through higher Chakra usage. The Chakra control required isn't as high as other Elemental Jutsu, nor is the Chakra consumption, but can take a toll on a normal Gennin or Academy student if used for an extended period of time or cast multiple times.**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant=*=*=**

**The rant this time is going to be short but sweet.**

**HAS ANYONE EVER SEEN THE 4TH HOKAGE?! Yes? So I take it everyone in the Leaf Village is an UTTER retard? Everyone looks at Naruto every damn day and they NEVER make the connection?  
**

**Shikamaru apparently has an IQ of over 200, and yet he manages to overlook something so GLARINGLY OBVIOUS?**

**WTF Kishi? Are you retarded or is the Leaf Village retarded? Which one?**

**=*=*= Personal Opinion Rant End =*=*=**


	11. To Wave Country

**The Pathless Sage**

**_Beta read by 'I before A except after K'_  
**

**A/R: Yay, finally, the story is moving along. It felt a little bogged down the past few chapters, but Naruto will now be an awesomesauce Taijutsu master, for now. Next up is probably Fuinjutsu and him getting a proper house.**

**Ranting, AGAIN!**

**On with the story!**

Hinata just got back from meeting with her Jounin sensei for the first time. Well, it wasn't the first time she met Kurenai, but it certainly was the first time she met her as her Jounin sensei. She liked her team, Shino was quiet yet supportive and Kiba was exciteable but loyal. She had a feeling they would make great trackers.

Walking through the wooden hallways, she made her way towards her father's office. She knew her father wouldn't care, but she was supposed to report to him about her daily activities and the fact that she was safely back in the compounds when she got back. She didn't like it, but her father was the Clan Head.

She came upon the traditional sliding doors that gave entry to her father's office and knocked quietly, waiting for a response. At the call of "Enter!" she went into the office and immediately sat into seiza. She may have been the heiress, but even she was meant to show respect to the Clan Head.

"It's good to see you, Hinata," Hiashi said quietly, not looking up from his paperwork. Hinata froze. "_Good to see me? Something isn't right, he has never said anything like that to me._"

-TT-

**(That was mean, but I'm not telling you what happened to Hinata yet :P)**

It had been a month since he started doing the D Rank missions, and he had kept up a constant stream of them. He was earning a lot of money, but that didn't keep him from being bored. He hadn't thought about boredom when he was training, all he ever got to think of then was the exhaustion.

With a sigh, he walked into the Mission Center to pick up his set of two hundred D Rank missions for the day, but stopped in his tracks after seeing who was there. The Hokage was the one giving the missions out today, and Team 7 were seemingly having an argument with him.

"These chores are boring, Old Man. Give us something a bit more fun to do," Zaraki complained. Naruto watched from afar, a smirk on his face. Seems like Zaraki had become a bit more open with his emotions since he had become a Gennin.

"So you want something more fun to do, Zaraki-kun?" The aged Hokage asked, watching the reactions of the other team members. Sasuke looked like he approved, though it was hard to see through all that brooding, Sakura seemed to want to hit Zaraki, though she thought better of it and Kakashi looked like he wanted to fall through the floor and disappear. "So, Kakashi, think your team is ready?"

"Yes, sir. They should be fine with a low to mid C Rank mission. Their teamwork isn't stellar but their individual prowess may shine through," by that, he meant Zaraki could save their asses if Kakashi was busy.

The Hokage motioned to a Chunin, who was sitting next to him and told him something Naruto couldn't hear. The Chunin went outside and in came an aged man that looked drunk out of his wits.

"I'm Tazuna, a bridge builder. I thought I was getting real ninja for protection, not some pipsqueak brats?" The drunk man, now identified as Tazuna, slurred. For someone that was so drunk, his speech was oddly coherent.

"Yo, Old Man, you mind if I tag along with Team 7 for this one?" Naruto asked, silently telling Sarutobi that he thought something was wrong with this mission.

"Why would we need the Dobe to come with us? We are more than capable of protecting a man from bandits and robbers," Sasuke finally makes his presence known.

"YEAH! SASUKE-KUN CAN DO ANYTHING!" And in comes his loyal banshee. "_Jeez, do they not see that something isn't right here? Why would a bridge builder need 'real' ninja for protection from bandits?_"

"Eh? Why not, more the merrier," Seems like Zaraki was the only one in their team with half a brain.

"Alright Naruto, go ahead and pack for three weeks," Sarutobi called, handing Kakashi a scroll for a C Ranked mission.

-TT-

"Naruto, you better have a good explanation for why the hell you dragged me out of bed at eleven in the morning," Kisame's voice wasn't loud, but the threat behind that tone was obvious.

"Two reasons Kisame. One, it's unhealthy to sleep for that damn long. Two, you're my Jounin sensei, so you have to come with me on this mission," Naruto replied, ignoring the glares from Sakura and Sasuke, and the bored looks from Zaraki and Kakashi.

"Naruto, it's fine. Go ahead on your own, if Kakashi is there, you should come back alive. I'm going back to bed, so don't bother me," Kisame headed back towards Naruto's apartment, while everyone sweatdropped.

"And here I thought I could drag him out. Ah well," Naruto sighed. He was hoping he could bring him along, having someone as powerful as Kisame around usually raised the rate of success for your missions.

"Well, our client is here. Sasuke, you have the best eyes, take point. Sakura take the right, Zaraki take left and Naruto can bring up the rear. I'll come last to make sure you guys don't get ambushed." With that, they headed out.

-TT-

They had been travelling for a couple of hours. Having to walk was a bother, normally they would just jump from tree to tree, but having a civilian in their midst made that impossible.

Naruto was on edge, he didn't know why, but he was expecting something to happen. He felt uneasy about this mission, and his instinct never lied to him. Not once in his life.

"_**Stop that, brat. Your constant shivering is getting on my nerves,**_" Kurama thought, it had been a while since they talked.

"_Sorry, Kurama. I just get the feeling there is something wrong with this mission,_" right then, Naruto passed by two puddles on the floor. No one seemed to notice, but he saw Zaraki twitch in anticipation slightly. "_A puddle on a sunny day when it hasn't rained for a week? Nice disguise, dumbass! I'll talk to you later Kurama._" With that, Naruto cut the link, and again, he could of sworn he heard to Fox chuckle before he left.

When Kakashi passed the puddles, he showed no signs of acknowledgement, but Naruto knew the war-veteran wouldn't miss something so basic.

"You're mine!" Two voices intoned at once as two figures quickly jumped out of the puddle. Before anyone could react, a spiked chain wrapped around Kakashi, and with a tug on both sides, Kakashi was no more.

"Kakashi-sensei!" The banshee wailed. Sakura and Sasuke froze, while Zaraki and Naruto got to work on instinct.

Ducking underneath the claw that came at him, Naruto let his fists fly. Faster than anyone could see, his target was on the floor; battered, bruised and unconscious. Naruto's target got off easy in comparison to Zaraki's though.

Not bothering to dodge any of the hits, Zaraki drew his long, jagged sword. The blade looked chipped and worn, but Naruto could see it was sharp. The claw that came at Zaraki was no longer attached the attackers shoulder, but lying forgotten on the floor as Zaraki advanced on his prey with a manic grin.

With a glint in his eyes, he sliced down from crown to crotch, ripping the man perfectly in half.

"Good work, Zaraki-kun, Naruto-kun. Sasuke, I didn't think you would freeze up like that. Sakura, stop wailing, I'm not dead," Kakashi called from a branch high up in the canopy.

Sakura stopped crying in the favour of looking at where the voice came from. "You're not dead, sensei?" Everyone held their ears in pain. The Haruno's were truly blessed with piercing voices, and not in a good way.

"Of course he ain't dead. Human bodies get sliced up in fleshy chunks, not bits of wood," Zaraki called from where he stood, pointing to several pieces of splintered wood where Kakashi supposedly died.

"Alright, we need answers," Naruto advanced towards Tazuna, suddenly taking charge. His instincts told him something was up, and his instincts had never disappointed him. "Why the hell are there enemy Chunin after you?"

"They weren't after me, they attacked you. What should I know?" Tazuna shouted back, though he knew he had been found out. All of a sudden, this pipsqueak brat was looking terrifying to him.

"Don't play possum with me old man. Either you talk, or we abandon this mission. Your damn choice," Naruto wasn't in the mood for games. Zaraki sheathed his sword after he was done cleaning the blood off, Sakura got off the floor and Kakashi came back down to the floor from his high perch in the trees.

Tazuna explained to the gathered ninja about his country, abut Gato and the bridge. To them, the bridge was the only hope, the only way they were going to get out of that hellhole of a place.

"Wait a second, doesn't the Land of Waves have a Hidden Village of it's own?" Naruto asked, remembering one of the history scrolls Itachi had given him to make up for his lack of learning from the Academy.

"It does, but Gato has taken over the Village and given shelter to his missing nin. We can't do anything about it and it's given him more and more power over us," Tazuna was almost in tears now. The man looked a decade older than his age and he looked broken. "Go ahead, abandon the mission. Our country will be Gato's slaves, our women will get raped. My grandson is going to cry-"

"Save the sob story old man. We are ninja, we are trained to hide our emotions," Naruto interrupted. "How about this, we take this mission, and 1% of all income from your Hidden Village goes to us. 1% for each of us, that's 5% and another 10% for our Village. And while you're at it, you might as well sign a pact of non aggression with our Village."

"Ridiculous, that is way too much money just to get me to my house!" Tazuna yelled.

"Oh who said we are just getting you to your house?" Tazuna looked at him, puzzled. "I'll personally bring you Gato's head."

Everyone in his vicinity looked at him like he was crazy, though Zaraki was giving him an appreciative grin. Tazuna looked at him like he was an angel on earth.

**A/R: CUT! That's a wrap. Not one of my better chapters, but thanks for reading. The next chapter should be more fun.**

**Please review, favourite and alert. It really helps me out. Sharing the story link with others on FB, Twitter and via e-mail is also really helpful.**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant=*=*=**

**Short one again.**

**Why is it that all the Black people get dumped in Kumo? I get that the skin colour might be caused by the environment they live in, but it can't be the only place with that kind of environemnt. And how is it that Leaf has Asian/White people that are so pale when they get plenty of sunlight?**

**Is Kishi racist? I dunno.**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant End=*=*=**


	12. Enter Zabuza Momochi, Naruto Fights!

**The Pathless Sage**

**_Beta read by 'I before A except after K'._  
**

**A/R: I took you guys' flames to heart and made A/R at the beginning shorter.**

**This chapter is going to be fun, a quick little insight into just how strong Naruto is right now. By which, I mean VERY strong.**

"The screeching of a Haruno woman. Not just Sakura."

**Loose guide to base damage (starting with lowest):**

**Punches, Kicks, Elbows, Knees, Weapons, Poisoned Weapons, Chakra Powered Weapons, Earth Chakra Powered Weapons, Water Chakra Powered Weapons, Fire Chakra Powered Weapons, Lightning Chakra Powered Weapons, Wind Chakra Powered Weapons, Sage/Natural Chakra Powered Weapons, Demonic Chakra Powered Weapons.**

**On with the story!**

Sakura was royally pissed. That wasn't all that abnormal, nor was the fact that she was pissed off at Naruto, but the fact that she was pissed off enough to try killing Naruto wasn't something that happened often. Sure, she hated the guy irrevocably, but she seldom wanted to kill the boy.

On the inside, Naruto was on high alert, while on the outside Naruto was acting goofy and idiotic to try and fool their assailant. He knew someone was close by, so he concentrated on finding their accurate whereabouts and trying to nail them.

"OVER THERE!" With a battlecry, Naruto threw a kunai. Fortunately, the kunai found it's mark and hit something. Unfortunately, that something happened to be a white rabbit that was now nailed to the trunk of a tree by it's coat. That was why Sakura was pissed at Naruto.

"Naruto! Look what you did, you almost killed the rabbit by trying to act cool!" Naruto only kept on acting goofy and let Sakura berate him, while roughly embracing the now traumatised rabbit. On the inside, though, Naruto was guarded. "_A snow rabbit. Their fur is only white in the winter, so why is it white now? Unless it's dom__es__ticated ... __**REPLACEMENT JUTSU**__!_"

"Everybody duck!" Naruto and Kakashi screamed simultaneously, as a large zanbato flew over their heads and embedded itself into the trunk of a rather large tree. Zaraki and Sasuke had floored themselves immediately, as did Naruto, but he also had to pull Tazuna and a confused Sakura to the ground. A creepy looking man with bandages over his face and a Hidden Mist headband shunshinned onto the hilt of the sword and stood there.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Copy Ninja Kakashi," the creepy man intoned in a deep, grating voice. His voice somehow sounded ... scary.

"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of Hidden Mist. This is going to be a tough fight," Kakashi said, straightening his hitai ite over his forehead, revealing his red left eye. He was going to go all out for this fight, "You guys, Manji formation and don't interfere. This guy is way out of your league."

"What an honour, I get to see the Sharingan first hand from a man that copied over a thousand Jutsu," Zabuza got a manic grin on his face. No, not manic ... that grin was plain demonic. "This should be fun!"

Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Zaraki got into the Manji formation around Tazuna, each ninja protecting a side of the target and looking dead ahead. "_How does Kakashi have a Sharingan? Is he an Uchiha, or did he steal our Bloodline?_" A certain Uchiha was fuming in his thoughts.

Zabuza pulled his sword out of the tree, flipped twice in the air and landed on the floor. Kakashi pulled out a kunai and held it in a reverse grip. As both Jounin got ready to fight, the air started to get thicker and thicker with the intent to kill.

Zaraki was used to it by now, he had gotten blasted around by KI for so long that he wasn't affected any more. Naruto ... well he was the Kyubi's Jinchuriki, so this felt like a walk in the park for him. Sakura and Sasuke, they weren't as immune as the first two. Sakura was having trouble breathing and was unable to move at all, while Sasuke was having suicidal thoughts.

Not that it was an irregularity.

"_So these are Jounin, elite ninja of their Villages. This is insane, the bloodthirst in the air. It's suffocating. I can't stand this, I can't bear it anymore. I would rather take my life by my own hands!_" To follow through with his thoughts, Sasuke pulled out a kunai shakily. He prepared to stab down into his own stomach.

"Calm down Sasuke. You are my comrades, there is no way I'll let him hurt you, any of you," Kakashi looked backwards from his position, giving them all a small eye smile. Reassured by his sensei's words, Sasuke calmed down enough to put away the kunai and get into a defensive stance.

"You should keep your eyes on your opponent," quick as lightning, Zabuza was on him, his zanbato ready to strike. Kakashi was taken by surprise, and before he could react, the zanbato sliced through him with practiced ease. Rather than a spurt of blood, though, Zabuza got a face full of water. "_**WATER CLONE JUTSU!**_"

"You should learn to take your own advice," Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza and held a kunai to his throat, "It's over."

The only response Kakashi got was Zabuza melting away into water. Slowly but surely, the surrounding atmosphere started to become clouded as mist shrouded them in a hazy glow. The mist was thick, almost too thick to be natural.

"**Hidden Mist Jutsu**!" Zabuza announced gleefully from somewhere in the area. His voice echoed eerily, as if it was coming from all around them rather than from just one particular place.

"Be on your guard. Zabuza is a master of the Silent Killing technique. You won't know what happened until you're dead," Kakashi warned, once again holding his kunai in a reverse grip in an attempt to cut down on his reaction time, and look cool in the process.

The four Gennin immediately stiffened, even Naruto and Zaraki.

"Eight choices: Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart," Zabuza's voice rang out from around them, taking sickly pleasure in seeing his targets squirm. "Now, which one should I go for?"

With one hand in half a Tiger Seal and his zanbato held behind his back, Zabuza landed lithely within the group protecting Tazuna, intending to take him out quickly. That was not to be. As soon as he landed, he found a kunai embedded into his ribs, water seeping from the wound.

Kakashi had seen the other Jounin land inside the Gennin's defenses and moved as fast as he could to intercept him before he could kill Tazuna or one of the kids. The force of their mentor moving past them so fast made the Gennin stumble forward slightly. He drove the kunai as far as it would go into Zabuza's ribs, only to find out it was a Water Clone.

"I'm not that easy to catch Kakashi," Zabuza shouted as he fell towards the cyclopean Jounin, swinging his massive sword downwards in an attempt to cleave his opponent in half, lengthwise. Apparently caught by surprise, Kakashi allowed himself to get cleaved in half. Only to explode in a shower of water. Again.

Seeing Kakashi get split in half, Sakura let out a little scream.

Cutting clean through Kakashi, Zabuza's sword embedded itself into the ground. Kakashi took this opportunity to jump out and attack the so-called Demon. As soon as he got close enough to attack, though, Zabuza pushed off from his sword's hilt and kicked him accross the ribs, making him fly into the heavy water of the sea.

"_This water, it's not normal, it__'s__ dense ... SHIT!_" Kakashi thought.

"I got you now!" Zabuza was running through Seals as fast as he could, which, admittedly, was very fast. "**Water Prison Jutsu**!" The water rose up around Kakashi, forming a spherical prison around him, keeping him captive, while Zabuza's arm was inside the prison as well, keeping the water there.

"Forget it Kakashi, you can't escape my Water Prison," Zabuza got that same demonic grin on his face again, "Now watch as I destroy these brats of yours."

He made a Water Clone. It had a tenth of Zabuza's strength, but was strong enough to take on some wannabe brats that wanted to play ninja.

"You brats wear headbands and walk around, thinking it makes you a ninja. When you have brushed with death so many times that it doesn't faze you, then you may be called a ninja. When you have become so deadly that your profile is entered into my Bingo Book, then you may have earned the title ninja-" the Clone berated, walking towards the Gennin slowly, while the mist thickened around him, hiding him from view. "-but to call upstarts like you ninja, it's an insult and a joke!"

Sasuke and Naruto, caught by surprise, were kicked through the air in quick succession. Their progress through the air was halted by having their backs meet with the trunks of a couple of large trees. They were winded, but the Water Clone wasn't strong enough to hurt them while using so little strength.

They got up and walked back towards their comrades, to see Zabuza about to slice Zaraki in half.

Zabuza thought he had finished the first two off, so he went for the third one, the one that looked to be the most dangerous. Admittedly, he probably wouldn't be the only one to assume that, seeing his ragged and battle worn look.

Zaraki saw the blade coming at his shoulder in a downward arc, and despite being more than fast enough to intercept it, he made no efforts to stop the blade. Sakura gasped, expecting the sword to cleave her team-mate in half. The mist cleared a little, revealing a grinning Zaraki with a zanbato seemingly resting on his shoulder.

"You'll need to to better than that to cut through my **Hierro**," Zaraki said, drawing his own nodachi and slicing through the surprised Water Clone with ease.

"Well, well, well. Seems like the Hidden Leaf brats aren't all useless," to conserve Chakra, Zabuza released his **Hidden Mist Jutsu** and created a few Water Clones, "Tell me brat, how did you stop my Kubikiribocho?"

"Hah? It's simple, just focus Chakra to where the blade's gonna hit you, and you can stop it from slicing you to ribbons," Zaraki complied, earning him dubious looks from Sakura and Sasuke. Why would the idiot give away secrets to his technique?

Naruto sighed loudly, catching everyone's attention. "What are you sighing about, Dobe?" Sasuke asked, looking at him like he was insane. Which he did most of the time with anyone that did anything out of the norm.

"Nothing, I just didn't want to take these off so quickly," when Sakura and Sasuke looked at him curiously, Naruto started to take his jacket off, "I wanted to keep these a secret at least until the upcoming Chunin exams.

While all this was taking place, Zabuza stood there quietly, wondering what the blonde kid looked so calm about. After all, most Gennin weren't calm in front of certain death, so why was this kid so different?

"Naruto, why are you stripping? Put your clothes back on," Sakura wailed, which was quite damaging to the hearing of surrounding lifeforms, especially Kakashi, since he was submerged in water.

"Calm down, I can't take off the weights on my torso with my clothes on, can I?" Off came the jacket, revealing large iron bars within a sash with pockets for the weights to go into. The sash covered most of his torso, along with two others that covered the entirety of his forearms. All in all, he looked to be wearing body armour consisting of weights. No wonder Naruto wore such a loose jacket and no shirt.

"How much ya wearing?" Surprisingly, it was Zaraki that asked the question. He wasn't one to usually start conversations, especially in a fight. The Gennin on his team had gotten to know quite well that their team-mate lived for the thrill of the battle.

"Around a hundred pounds, last I checked. I dunno though, it never felt lighter even though I kept training, so maybe Kisame added weights without me noticing," Naruto answered, though he wondered why the other boy cared. It wasn't like they were going to fight each other. Yet.

Zaraki licked his lips, unbeknownst to all other than Zabuza, who thought it gave the boy somewhat of a demonic appearance.

Sakura and Sasuke looked surprised. They thought Naruto was utterly feeble, so being able to move normally with that much weight ... how strong was he?

"_Impossible, I would collapse if I had that much weight put on me, let alone more. How can the Dobe move around normally as if the weights aren't even there?_" Sasuke thought in bemusement.

"Zaraki, try getting Kakashi out of that prison. Chop Zabuza's arm off if you can, that would break the Jutsu and give us the advantage of having his arm gone. I'll hold off all the Clones, Sakura and Sasuke watch over the client," Naruto took charge, giving out orders like a seasoned ninja that had gone on and led many missions in his time.

Zabuza was honestly surprised. For a Gennin to walk around like nothing was going on while wearing that much weight. He hated to admit it, but for the first time, he was impressed with a brat of his age.

Zaraki ran over to where Zabuza was holding his prisoner captive, Sasuke and Sakura stiffened in their position around Tazuna and Naruto stood behind where Zaraki just ran past, covering his trail and making sure none of the Clones went to intercept him. They would have to get through him first.

The fight was on.

Not waiting for the Clones to attack him, seeing as he would be overwhelmed due to lesser numbers, he decided to charge. While his eyes and brain expected him to arrive fairly quickly at his target, he wasn't prepared to appear right next to them as if he had just teleported. He was ready to punch, but he was caught off guard by his own speed.

His body had become so fast that his brain and his eyes couldn't keep up. He willed his arm to punch a Clone three times within two seconds and ended up punching eight times, completely demolishing the Clone, but overbalancing due to excess force from the last punch that hit air.

One Clone down, nineteen to go.

The next Clone he ran at wasn't as slow to react and swung his sword in a high, sideways arc, trying to cleave Naruto in half. Naruto dodged by bending backwards, but in the process, he bent back too far due not being used to moving so fast and hit his head on the floor.

The sword was heavy, so the Clone had to either swing back around in an attempt to use the momentum, or use all of his strength to pull the sword back. Thinking it more beneficial to keep it under control, he pulled the sword back with all his might.

Seeing his chance, Naruto planted his arms on the floor, pushed up and kicked out at the Clone that had just attacked him. He kicked straight through his watery head and up into the air behind him.

Two Clones down, eighteen to go.

On the other front of the mini-war, Zaraki was having some problems. As the battle loving maniac he was, he decided that having a fight with a virtually paralysed Zabuza would be more fun. Rather than trying to free a quickly suffocating Kakashi, he attacked the Hidden Mist missing nin head on, only to find that he was rather nimble with his large zanbato, as he blocked every strike of his nodachi with a slight flick of the wrist.

Zabuza didn't try to attack the Gennin in any way, since he didn't have enough Chakra to hold the **Water Prison Jutsu** and make a Clone, so he just resorted to defending while expending the least amount of Chakra as possible. And while he was interested in the maniacally grinning Zaraki, the blonde behind him interested him more.

Kakashi was pumping as much Chakra as he could to his lungs, trying to make his air last as long as he possibly could.

Naruto had gotten rid of the first twelve Clones that he attacked and he was already bruised, badly. None of these bruises were inflicted by Zabuza' Clones, all of them had come from him somehow managing to screw up his co-ordination badly enough to either hit himself, the ground, or some rather hard objects.

He was starting to adjust to his new speed, his eyes getting better at monitoring things at higher speeds, his brain starting to process the information faster. His body started to respond more like he wanted to, though his technique was nowhere near what it was with his weights on. While his technique had been flawless with the weights, it was no sloppy at best.

Normally, his punches and kicks derived their destructive power from rotation of the hips, chest and pivoting on either leg, but since he couldn't co-ordinate himself well enough to transfer weight from one part to another effectively, he resorted to using brute force from his arms and legs. The few times that he had tried to use rotation, he had either spun out of control, or badly misfired his punches and kicks.

Sasuke and Sakura were looking on in scarcely restrained awe. Here was a boy of their own age, who they thought to be far inferior to them, fighting Clones of a Jounin, the former commander of the Assassination Unit, no less. Sure, it had a tenth of the original's strength, but that didn't mean it wasn't strong.

He was running around and attacking so fast that he looked like he was using some kind of Time-Space ninjutsu, like the Fourth Hokage. Thinking of the Fourth Hokage, Naruto did look awfully similar to the deceased warrior.

"_Nah, the Dobe couldn't be related to such a powerful man._"

"_No way, that Baka related to a Hokage? Laughable!_"

Oh how wrong and ignorant they were.

They didn't understand one thing though, what was it with him and inflicting injuries on himself? Was he some kind of emo masochist? Did he like the pain? So he hurt himself on purpose for the fun of it? Both Sasuke and Sakura cringed at the thought.

Tazuna didn't have any idea what was going on. He was just glad that the blonde brat had decided to tag along when he did, otherwise, he might as well have been dead right now. All Tazuna could see of Naruto was ... nothing. His eyes were far inferiorly trained than that of a ninja, so his eyesight couldn't even comprehend Naruto's movements.

Naruto was starting to feel only slight amounts of fatigue, even after fighting for so long against such a superior opponent. The advantage of doing about five hundred years worth of hardcore training was that it caused his already inhuman levels of stamina to skyrocket. That made him quite resistant to fatigue, to say the least. Add to that the fact that he was the Jinchuriki of the most powerful Demon currently in existence, and you have yourself a nigh tireless warring machine.

Finishing the last Clone with a sloppy punch to ... where the Sun never shines, he turned to see Zaraki finally getting bored of slashing at a dummy that didn't bother to do anything other than block and finally slashing at Zabuza's arm.

Of course, Zabuza was a perfectly intelligent human being (unlike some others present in the battlefield at that moment) and could see that not letting the Water Prison go would be bad for him. Not only would he lose his arm, he would also release the Water Prison anyway. So he took the best course of action and jumped away from the ball of water to evade the blade that was about to slice his arm off.

Kakashi was breathing hard, now that he could actually breathe. Holding his breath for almost ten minutes had been quite an ordeal for him and he was starting to turn blue from the strain.

After catching his breath, Kakashi stood upright to continue with his battle against Zabuza, who was now fuming and trying to find a way to slice Zaraki, who was now using a full body **Hierro**, only to have his sword bounce off over and over again.

Kakashi mentally facepalmed, for someone so great, Zabuza sure could be dense sometimes. Did he not realise he could easily slice through something of that level if he only channelled a little bit of Chakra through his blade?

Kakashi ran through a few handsigns, intending to use one of the Jutsu he copied with the Sharingan, in his earlier days. He hadn't used it in a while and prayed that he could still remeber how to do it.

"**Earth Style: Crushing Earth**!" Kakashi announced, and as soon as he did, the the ground around Zabuza started rising up and covering every nook and cranny of his body. The soil piled higher and higher around Zabuza, starting to crush him under the weight already. Before the soil rose any higher though, two senbon needles flew towards him and embedded themselves into the side of his neck.

A hunter nin in a sky blue kimono with pink flower print appeared next to Zabuza, his/her face covered by a mask. Nodding in thanks to the Leaf ninja, she quickly shunshinned away.

"_That's suspicious ... why didn't the hunter nin destroy the body on the spot like they are meant to? Whatever, I'm too tired right now,_" Kakashi though, replacing his hitai ite over his left eye and promptly falling unconscious due to Chakra exhaustion.

Zaraki sheathed his sword and returned to the side of his team-mates. Sakura and Sasuke relaxed, but Naruto stayed on guard, replacing his weights and jacket, feeling the familiar pressing feeling take over his body as the weights restricted his movements again.

Tazuna moved in and picked up the limp body of Kakashi. Since he was the client and not a ninja, he was the only person fit to carry Kakashi, as he would not be required to move at a moment's notice should a threat arise.

They carried on their journey at a slower pace, with the strinct guidance of Tazuna himself, who had travelled the path hundreds, maybe thousands of times before.

Eventually, they arrived at a small two story house that looked a little beaten down, a little worse for wear but it looked no less appealing to the ninja right now. All they needed was some food and a bed to sleep in.

Tazuna opened the door, having handed Kakashi over to Zaraki, to be welcomed by the open arms of his beautiful daughter, Tsunami. She was a woman of about thirty with dark, shoulder length hair.

"Father, you're back! I'm glad you're home safe and sound," she cheered, her features lighting up in what Naruto and Zaraki identified as a forced smile. Her face upturned into a smile, but her eyes maintained the dead look they had about them.

"Yes, thanks to these ninja from the Hidden Leaf," Tazuna said, pointing to the four kids that were now standing in their doorway, Kakashi laying forgotten on the floor. Sakura looked quite bashful, Sasuke looked like he did all the work himself (which was utterly prepostrous), Zaraki looked bored and Naruto looked like he wanted to sleep.

"Ninja? They look like they're the same age as my Inari!" Tsunami exclaimed surprised by their young age. She still hadn't noticed Kakashi lying on the floor, "Aren't they being supervised by an adult?"

"Kakashi-sensei overdid it a bit in the fight on the way here," Sakura said, pointing down towards the floor. Having noticed the poor Jounin for the first time, Tsunami rushed to the unconscious man's aid. With some effort, she pulled Kakashi on her back and hauled him over to one of the empty rooms to recover.

They had survived the fight, but was this going to be the only one? Were they going to get out without casualty if they had to fight again? Would their enemies underestimate them again? Would they leave loopholes in their defenses again?

So many questions, so little answers. Such is the way of life.

**A/R: Nothing much to say. 4K, without counting notes.**

**Hope you enjoyed. Please review and share, it really helps me out.**

**I have decided to not respond to reviews in chapters, and I can't find anything to rant about right now. If I find anything, I'll include them.**

**Just because I don't respond to them here doesn't mean I don't read them. I read reviews all the time, twice or thrice for each review. If I find a review interesting, or if you have a question, I will mail you a response.**

**Zaraki isn't an Arrancar, I just needed a name for his hard skin. So meh.**

**Majin out!**


	13. A Heart to Heart Talk

**The Pathless Sage**

**_Beta read by 'I before A except after K'_  
**

**A/N: Inari-bashing. Dark chapter. Like, very dark. I'm actually wondering if I should up the rating because of this chapter.**

**-sigh- People stop hating, the Rinnegan will be coming into the story soon. Even I can't just give Naruto full control of the Samsara eye right off the bat without making him uber OP.**

**On with the story!**

The next morning dawned bright and cheery, the complete opposite of how Kakashi was feeling. Kakashi's mood was quite gloomy, and while that wasn't unusual for the war veteran, it was unusual of him to be feeling that way because of something that transpired recently. It was usually him reminiscing about the past that got him all sad and sentimental.

Kakashi was currently laying on his futon, unmoving. His body was currently stuck in place, almost as if he was getting rigor mortis, due to the overuse of the Sharingan. Honestly, he had been using the Bloodline for years now, and even after all that practice he had in using the thing, he could never use it for a long time without serious repurcussions.

He was also thinking about that hunter nin that took Zabuza away, and he couldn't help but feel that something was wrong in that situation. Years of living on the edge had given him a sixth sense, he could feel it on his skin when a situation was suspicious. If his instints were anything to go by, then they were still in mortal peril.

He was still trying to figure out a way to train Sasuke and Sakura up to a point where they could live for more than a few seconds if Zabuza came after them, and he still needed to fix Naruto's problem with not being able to control his movements and Zaraki's lack of formal training.

Kakashi sighed, this was going to be a long mission for the temporarily paralysed Jounin.

-TT-

It had been a few hours since Kakashi had woken up, and the residents of the entire house were now awake as well. Tsunami went about her business in the kitches, preparing breakfast for he lot. Tazuna got his things prepared, he wanted to go check up on the progress on the bridge now that he was back from collecting supplies in Konoha. Inari was still sitting in his room, moping about how depressing life was. The Gennin were currently with Kakashi, discussing their current situation.

"Say, Kakashi, did something strike you as weird about that hunter nin that came to take Zabuza away?" Naruto asked. Kakashi had been pleasantly surprised to find that his sensei's son was far more mature and intelligent, not to mention stronger, than any of his files dictated. He was still ticked off about the boy not using honourifics or showing him any visible respect. Naruto was treating him as an equal.

"Yes, there seemed to be something weird going on. If my hypothesis is correct ..." Kakashi trailed off, ignoring Naruto's apparent disrespect for now. It wasn't the time to fight over something so trivial. He may not seem like it, but Kakashi was a highly calculating man and he thought his actions through at all times.

Sakura and Sasuke stiffened at Kakashi's words. They were expecting terrible news from their sensei, news that they knew they wouldn't like. Zaraki seemed to be grinning though, he thought he was going to get another good fight coming his way. Naruto only gave a resigned nod.

"Yeah, Zabuza's probably still alive and now has a partner. This is going to be a hard situation to deal with," Naruto said, but sighed when Sasuke, Sakura and even Zaraki started giving him weird looks. "Last time, Zabuza was fighting alone, so Kakashi could fight him while we looked after the client. This time, if Zabuza has a partner, then one of us will have to fight. Kakashi will be in no position to fight another opponent on top of Zabuza when the time comes."

"Yeah, but last time, you and Zaraki held your own against Zabuza, so what makes you think that you can't handle his partner?" Honestly, how did Sakura ever manage to score so high in her Academy exams? She was so dense!

"Because last time, Naruto was fighting clones. They weren't nearly as strong as Zabuza and nowhere near as intent on his death as the real one would have been. I was fighting him while he was stuck on the spot, so you can't really call it a fight," Naruto was right in thinking Zaraki was the only one in the group that had any brains, and certainly was the only one with any real combat experience. He sounded disappointed about something when he said it wasn't much of a fight, though.

"Correct. If I fought Zabuza's partner without my weights on, I would get slaughtered by fighting so sloppily. If I am to fight any opponent that is concentrating on me and has the resolve to kill, I will eventually wind up dead," Naruto continued Zaraki's explanation.

"So what do we do?" Sasuke asked.

"So we train," Kakashi said, with his trademark eyesmile. "Zaraki, we need to do something about that Kenjutsu of yours. While it is good, we need to fix up the kinks and give you an actual style and some attacks to learn. Sasuke, Sakura, the best I can do for the two of you right now is teach you better Chakra control so that you are ready for future Jutsu I will be teaching you. As for you Naruto, we need to do something about that Taijutsu of yours."

"Don't worry about me, Kakashi. Go train your students, I am not your liability," Naruto replied standing up to walk away. "Besides, if what I am about to train in works out, I can probably beat Guy in a pure Taijutsu fight, provided he doesn't use the Eight Gates on me. Besides, I doubt you have enough knowledge on my Bloodline to train me."

Kakashi's visible eye widened at the insinuation. A mere Gennin beating Maito Guy at Taijutsu? Prepostrous. Kakashi knew first hand just how monstrous that man's strength was. Even among the Jounin, he was considered in a league of his own when it came down to Taijutsu, just like Kakashi was revered for his skill in Ninjutsu.

It was his last comment that made him curious, though. Naruto had a Bloodline Limit? One that Kakashi couldn't help him with? Now that was funny, Kakashi was probably the one with the highest chance of being any help with a Bloodline, considering he had one of his own.

"You mean that fire Jutsu you showed off in the Academy?" Sasuke asked scathingly. He was still annoyed about the other boy not teaching him such a powerful technique, one that could help him beat Itachi.

"No, the **Azure Dragon's Wrath** wasn't a Bloodline Limit, just a Jutsu from my Clan. I figured that out after I realised that I had an actual Bloodline Limit, not just a Jutsu," Naruto said, turning his back towards the group and starting to walk towards the door, thinking of his encounter with Itachi.

Over the months, Itachi had been telling him about the Rinnegan when he could find the time. Though Itachi had seen the Doujutsu first hand before, he was still unaware of the full extent of the Rinnegan's abilities, but he had a slight idea as to what the Bloodline had to offer.

"Before you go to train, out of curiosity, what kind of a Bloodline is it?" Kakashi asked, at least with a hint of mild interest in his voice. It wasn't everyday that Kakashi Hatake was interested in the abilities of a Gennin, but Naruto had caught his attention.

"It's a Doujutsu," Naruto said, before walking away to train.

Sakura was still contemplating if Naruto really had a Doujutsu like her sensei, while Sasuke was seething. He thought he was the only one with a potential Doujutsu in that room, bar Kakashi, though he was still convinced that no Doujutsu could be as great as the Sharingan.

Oh how wrong he was.

-TT-

Naruto was walking towards the forest near Tazuna's house, intent on training alone for the day and letting Team 7 deal with guarding the client for the day. Since they had just fought the enemy, he doubted anyone particularly strong would be showing up any time soon.

Naruto was thinking about whether he could really use that part of his Rinnegan just yet. According to Itachi, the Rinnegan was a more powerful version of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and had quite a few perks that went with it. The ultimate form of the Doujutsu, as far as Itachi knew, had all of the abilities that the Sharingan had, but further enhanced, and it also had the ability to use the signatures Jutsu of the Mangekyo, the Tsukuyomi and the Amaterasu.

While the Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were powerful Jutsu, Naruto had no illusions of grandeur. He knew he was far from using such Jutsu, let alone master them, as he still had to even master the Bloodline enough to use it without having his Chakra eaten up within a moment.

He wasn't currently interested in the more powerful Jutsu that came with the mastery of the Rinnegan, nor was he interested in trying to figure out what other Jutsu the Rinnegan enabled him to use that Itachi hadn't known about.

No, Naruto was now interested in the most basic of the Rinnegan's enhancements. The drastic improvement in his eyesight and his brain's ability to quickly process the information his eyes were sending to it. He honestly knew, with Kisame's brutal training, he was already a force to be reckoned with, if only his lack of co-ordination hadn't gotten in the way.

Deciding he had gone far enough into the woods to not get interrupted, Naruto activated his Rinnegan and sat down to meditate. His advances sight came automatically with the activation, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that he needed to first learn how to properly utilise the more powerful sight and the second problem was that as he was now, even with his massive reserves, his Chakra was far too quickly drained for it to be an effective ability in battle.

So now, Naruto just sat there, meditating, and trying to partially stem the flow of Chakra to his eyes so that that his eyes didn't overload and he didn't run out of Chakra too quickly. Naruto was pleased to find that even a minute amount of Chakra kept the Rinnegan running at full power.

Now, he just had to build up his concentration and control so that he could use the Doujutsu in battle effectively without passing out from Chakra exhaustion in ten minutes.

-TT-

Sasuke and Sakura were having a hard time with their training.

They were currently climbing trees. That in itself wasn't all that difficult for a ninja, even a Gennin, but the fact that they had to do it without the use of anything other than their feet, was a little more troubling.

The aim of the exercise was to build Chakra control, or in Sakura's case, to expand her reserves a bit more, by having the practitioner focus their Chakra at the sole of their feet in a steady stream to stick themselves to the tree trunk and walk up vertically. Though it sounded easy, maintaining a steady stream that didn't fluctuate was surprisingly difficult. Too much Chakra, and they were blown off, but too little and they didn't stick to the tree in the first place.

While Sakura was having an easy time actually climbing the tree, she was quickly getting tired. Her aim was to build stamina, but she didn't see how this could help her. As for Sasuke, while he was having a hard time getting very far up the tree, he still wasn't breathing hard.

Zaraki was training on the water. Standing on the water was far more difficult, as one not only needed a greater stream of Chakra to stay afloat, but also needed to adjust the amount of Chakra as the water moved beneath them. While this in itself was a form of training, Zaraki's actual training consisted of some movements with his sword to cut out the sloppiness in his technique.

Kakashi was relaxing and reading a certain orange book, while looking at his students, hard at work, from the corner of his eyes. He allowed himself to relax for a while. His students were training hard, his charge went off somewhere to train on his own and his Shadow Clone was keeping an eye on the bridge builder.

Not the best of his days, but certainly not his worst.

-TT-

It was late evening and Kakashi, along with his students, was heading back to Tazuna's house. His students had a fairly productive day in the training fields, Tazuna hadn't been attacked and he took a good day of rest, even if he did have to watch over his students.

Surprisingly, not a single argument broke out that day. Sasuke was keeping his big mouth shut, Zaraki didn't care for picking a fight with Kakashi and Sakura didn't try to steal Sasuke's heart, which scared Kakashi to an extent. She never went a day without going at Sasuke.

Walking through the door, with his team following behind him, he saw that Tazuna had just gotten back from a hard day of work from the bridge. He looked tired, but happy. Working on the bridge seemed to rekindle that fire of hope he had inside him.

Once everyone had gotten their outdoor clothing off and they had freshened up from their day training. Everyone sat around the dining table, ready to have dinner, which Tsunami was currently serving. Kakashi was the only one that noticed the absence of a certain blonde.

"Has anyone seen Naruto?" Kakashi asked, looking towards his students first then towards their clients. Everyone shook their head.

"Now that you mention it, we haven't seen him since he left to train on his own," Sakura said, though she didn't sound the slightest bit concerned. Naruto may have earned a slight bit of respect from her, but she was still a hopeless Sasuke fangirl.

"This is bad, he might have been attacked!" Kakashi wasn't one to panic, but he knew that if they were going to survive the second battle with Zabuza, Naruto would be a key asset. Sure, Zaraki and Sasuke could hold their own in a fight, but frankly, they were no match for a Naruto primed for combat.

Kakashi's worries were quenched, though, when he heard a strained voice from the doorway.

"I'm fine, stop panicking," Naruto said feebly, his voice telling them he was everything but fine. Kakashi quickly rushed towards him and supported his weight as he slowly limped his way over to the dining table. Kakashi slowly lowered Naruto into an empty chair.

Zaraki was the first to notice something odd with Naruto. His eyes were closed tight, as if his eyes hurt for some reason. It wasn't obvious, but there seemed to be some traces of blood underneath his eyes as well.

"Oi, what happened to yer eyes?" Zaraki asked.

"I sympathise with Kakashi here, overdoing it with a Doujutsu is not a good idea. My eyes are so tired I can't open them and I have never been so low on Chakra in my entire life," Naruto replied scathingly, his eyes still screwed shut.

"Naruto, are you sure your eyes are just tired or is there some kind of other injuries?" Kakashi asked, concerned. He had just noticed the remnants of blood.

"No, I am quite sure it's just tired. There was some damage to my ocular veins due to overflow of Chakra near the beginning of the training, but that was fixed by my tenant," Naruto said cryptically, so that nobody other than the experienced Jounin understood what he meant.

Kakashi nodded, did a couple of handsigns and placed his hands over Naruto's eyes, his hands glowing green. "I am no expert healer, but I can provide some relief for tired eyes. If there was some other kind of damage, I don't have the expertise to heal that," Kakashi explained his actions.

"Wait Kakashi-sensei, why don't you heal yourself then?" Sakura asked. Really, how had the girl been the top of her class?

"Because my eyes aren't tired Sakura, I am suffering from side effects of Chakra exhaustion. My body has stiffened up and you would need someone of around Lady Tsunade's level to heal something like that effectively," Kakashi said.

Once Naruto's eyes were healed up, everyone got ready for dinner. Even the resident emo, Inari, who could even give Sasuke a run for his money, came in to eat dinner with everyone else. He was however, still adamantly silent and refused to converse with anyone, but nobody minded the rudeness of the young boy of eight.

Everyone ate in peaceful silence, with the odd comments and questions here and there. All was peaceful, until Inari slammed both of his hands down on the table.

"What is wrong with all of you?" When everyone looked at him in confusion, he continued. "Why do you keep on fighting? Are you all suicidal? Can't you see Gato is too strong?" Inari was shouting as loudly as his vocal chords would allow.

"What makes you think Gato is strong enough to beat us?" Naruto asked, curious. The boy seemed to have a look in his eyes that Naruto was very familiar with, a look he himself had in his own eyes in his younger days, though Naruto's eyes had looked far more weary than Inari's.

"Stop playing hero, there are no heroes in this world. Gato is rich and he's strong, he'll kill you all!" Inari wailed, starting to rival a certain Haruno in volume.

Tsunami decided to step in an help out her son. "You'll have to forgive him, he lost his father and Gato's reign has been particularly hard on him." Though she was defending her son, her voice held an underlying tone of warning, directed towards Inari.

Inari, however, didn't catch the warning and decided to continue on his rant. "You don't know how hard life can be for some of us. All of you have parents, people that look after you. You live in a rich village and play with your friends, have good food to eat whenever you want. What right do you have to interfere with our lives?"

Zaraki had had enough crap out of the boy. He stood wordlessly and took the sheathed nodachi in one hand. He quickly drew the blade and aimed to behead the brat in front of him. An inch away from his target's neck, Zaraki found that he couldn't move his arm. Looking at his forearm, he saw Naruto's hand holding it in place.

"Why'd you stop me, Naruto?" Zaraki asked, only to receive a shake of the head from the blonde. With a grimace, he put his blade back into the sheath. "You of all people have more than enough reason to beat the brat to oblivion." Zaraki's comment raised a few eyebrows, Naruto's included.

"Leave the poor boy alone, he obviously has had a hard time," Naruto said sympathetically, letting the boy get away with unknowingly insulting Naruto in the most terrible way possible. He really was getting soft. "Zaraki, while we are on the subject, just how do you know about me having more than enough reason to kill the boy for his statements?"

"You aren't the only one that had to live on the streets after getting kicked outta the orphanage. I got kicked out a couple years after you did," Zaraki explained, much to everyone else's surprise. Both Naruto and Zaraki were thrown out of the orphanage? "I saw you on the streets a couple times, but we never actually met."

"That explains things," Naruto said.

"Just because you got kicked out of an orphanage, you think you had a hard life!" Inari obviously wasn't getting the message that his life wasn't, I repeat was not, hard in comparison to the ninja in front of him. Well, he was only eight and he was traumatised.

Much to everyone's confusion, Naruto and Zaraki burst out laughing. They continued to laugh for a minute or two, rolling around on the floor and cracking up like they just heard the best joke in years.

What was said in that dining room would leave Inari, Tazuna, Tsunami and Sakura scarred for the entirety of their lives.

There were many surprises in store for the group that night, one of which was Sasuke being the first to start the storytelling.

"Tell me kid, why do you think your life is hard?" Sasuke asked, knowing full well what he was going to say.

"My father, my hero, was killed in front of my eyes. He only tried to help the village, but he was murdered because of it!" Inari shouted. He definitely wasn't getting the message that it was about time he stopped. He ignored the warning looks of his mother and grandfather.

"So you think your life has been hard just because your village is poor and that your father was killed in front of your eyes?" Sasuke asked for confirmation, and getting it in the form of a nod. "Think about this, did you have to watch your entire clan get murdered in front of your very eyes in a single night? Did you have to watch your parents get killed in front of your eyes, knowing you won't have anyone in the world anymore? Do you have to live with the knowledge that the killer of your clan was none other than your very own brother, the brother that you loved, trained with, competed with, the same brother that bandaged up your ankle and carried you on his back when you were injured? Did you have to watch your parents die over and over again for three days straight, until your mind broke from the strain? Do you live with the knowledge that the only reason for you to still be alive is to kill that very brother of yours? No? WELL I DO!" Sasuke shouted, his voice rising in crescendo from the start of his speech.

Everyone with the exception of Zaraki, who didn't care for blood, gore or death anymore, Kakashi, who had seen wars, so he was no stranger to death or despair, and Naruto, who already knew more details about the Uchiha Massacre than even Sasuke, was utterly shocked beyond words. Here was a boy barely three years older than Inari that had gone through the same thing Inari had, only multiplied a hundred fold.

"Did you have your best friend, the girl you loved, your father figure taken from you, one by one as if Fate was playing a cruel game of Shougi with your life? Do you still live with the knowledge you could have prevented those deaths if you only weren't so weak or so arrogant?" Kakashi asked, eliciting a shake of the head from the young boy. Another man that knew true despair.

Zaraki went next.

"Did you kill to survive? Did you ever get so hungry that you had to eat the raw flesh of those you killed?" Zaraki asked. Some of those with weak stomachs, Tsunami, Sakura and Inari for example, looked green and ready to throw up. Sasuke and Kakashi looked sympathetic, while Naruto looked mildly interested. "Did your parents try to kill you because they were afraid of your strength? Did you kill your own parents to stop them from trying to kill you?"

Inari was starting to get the point that he lived in heaven compared to these guys.

Naruto sighed. "I guess it's my turn, huh? I will warn you now, if you have a weak stomach, you want to leave the room now. If Zaraki's story didn't make you puke, mine will." Sakura and Tsunami needed no further warning, they promptly left the room. "You tell me that your life is much harder than mine, right? You lost your father at a young age and you live in a poor village. You think that's a hard life?"

Inari was seriously starting to get scared. He was getting a taste of what life really could be for some people, he hated to imagine what it would be like to live a life far worse than his own.

"At the age of five, I was kicked out of the orphanage. I lived on the streets, going from trashcan to trashcan to find enough food to live off of. I usually had about one scrappy meal in five or six days, and that was when I got lucky," Naruto got up and started to take his jumpsuit and weights off. Sasuke, Kakashi and Zaraki hadn't noticed it before because of the mist and the situation, but not an inch of Naruto's skin was spared from scars.

"I have been beaten almost every day of my life. A normal adult would die three times over in a day if they had the same injuries as I did. Thankfully, due to some circumstances, I heal faster than any human alive," Naruto explained. "You tell me brat, have you ever been looked at like everything that went wrong in the world was because of you? Have you ever been beaten by adults, by other ninja? Have you ever had people stab you through the lungs, or the liver? Have you ever had people partially chop your limbs off? Have you ever been tied up and left to burn to death? Have you ever been electrocuted with enough electricity to power a district?"

Sasuke and Kakashi had seen and heard some bad things in their life, but this easily took the cake. Zaraki had lived a portion of his life by eating raw human meat, but even he looked green. Tazuna was already throwing up, and Inari looked to be about ready to follow his grandfather.

"So remember brat, never again tell Naruto Uzumaki that he doesn't understand what a hard life entails, or it's the last time you will ever say anything," Naruto warned, going up to the room he and Sasuke had been assigned. Sasuke followed the other male upstairs.

When they got up the stairs, they heard the distinctive voice of Sakura crying, but decided to ignore it for now. Naruto walked into their temporary room, followed by Sasuke. Naruto didn't know why, but he thought Kakashi had made a big mistake by putting him and Sasuke in the same room.

"Naruto," Sasuke started, referring, for the first time in his life, to Naruto by his given name, rather than some derogatory term. "What you said downstairs, was it all true?"

"Hmm? Yeah, all of it," Naruto answered, absentmindedly, getting into his futon and lying down. Sasuke had always thought that the carefree orphan led a free and worriless life, but was surprised to find that it wasn't that Naruto didn't have hardships, but rather he was just more resilient to mental and physical torture than Sasuke.

"You going to sleep?" Sasuke asked, lying down in his own futon on the other side of the room. He honestly didn't know what to say in this situation without either hurting the other boy's feelings, not that he would ever admit he cared, or just making the situation more awkward than it already was.

"No, just distracted," Naruto answered, turning to face Sasuke in his futon. "The old memories are kind of overpowering, I haven't thought about them in a while." Naruto seemed to be in deep thought.

"How did you survive it?" Sasuke asked, looking curiously at Naruto, who looked at him in confusion. "How did you manage to survive all of those injuries? A normal person would be long dead." Before Naruto could answer, though, they heard the door opening to their room, admitting Kakashi and Zaraki into the room.

"Yo, how's it goin'?" Zaraki asked with a little wave, though they had been away only for a few minutes at best. "Moping and drowning in sorrow? Guess all the four of us need now is some sake and some ciggarettes."

Naruto and Sasue scoffed, but otherwise ignored the comment as the two newcomers made themselves comfortable on the floor. Kakashi was on crutches since his body was still weak from the overuse of the Sharingan and took longer to get on the floor than Zaraki.

"Sasuke, are you telling the truth? Are you that fixated on killing your brother?" Kakashi asked, genuinely concerned for his student. He had seen people go down that path, and he knew better than anyone that vengeance never brought anyone happiness.

"Yes, I have no other purpose to live than to kill my brother and restore my clan," Sasuke answered, slightly stiff.

"Give it up Sasuke," surprisingly, it was Naruto that spoke. "There is little point in seeking revenge. It gets you nowhere and leaves you with nothing."

"How would you know Naruto? And I can't just forgive him like that, not after what he did," Sasuke said, he sounded tired rather than angry, like he wanted to sound.

"Don't scream and throw a tantrum when I say this, okay?" Sasuke got a guarded look about him, but nodded anyway. Zaraki and Kakashi were curious as to what the blonde could say that would rile the duck-butt haired boy. "What Itachi did wasn't wrong. He had a reason for doing it and no matter how horrible his deeds sound, he picked the lesser of two evils. You don't know the full details of that night, so you shouldn't be so quick to judge."

As expected, Sasuke almost jumped out of his futon to attack the blonde, but remembered his promise to not throw a tantrum. He reluctantly went back into his bed. "Why? Tell me, what do you know about the Uchiha Massacre?"

Naruto just shook his head. "It isn't my story to tell."

"Then how am I ever going to find out about it?" Sasuke asked, anguished by the prospect of never knowing the truth.

"For your own safety, if you promise me that you won't attack him on sight and try to kill him, I'll take you to see Itachi," the Uchiha's eyes became almost three times it's normal size, gaining size comically fast.

**A/R: Oooh, is Itachi going to meet Sasuke? What will happen? How will Itachi react? Will Sasuke really try not to kill him? And what is going on with Sasuke being so friendly? Will Kisame and his bastardised shunshin be somehow involved in it all? That is a secret.**

**5k, the longest chapter yet by about 1k words. Next chapter: The Battle of the Bridge and possibly the conclusion to the arc.**

**Thank you**** to all those that reviewed, please continue to do so as it really motivates me to write more. The more you guys review, the more I write. Also, sharing the story with others through Facebook, Twitter or Email also really helps me out.**


	14. Calm Before the Storm

**The Pathless Sage**

_**Beta read by I before A except after K**_

**A/R: There is a poll on my profile regarding Zaraki'****s affinity, so help me out here. If you don't get your preference, but you didn't vote, then it's your ****own ****damn fault. Go vote!**

**I don't understand why, but the amount of reviews I was getting went up to 20 per chapter for two chapters then dropped to 9. Is it just me, or is the story losing popularity?**

**This chapter: I was meant to write the whole of the bridge fight and the ending, but meh, I got lazy. Stop complaining, I write these faster than most writers here, so you get the fast updates and shorter chapters. I can't do both, jeesh. **

**On with the story! **

Sasuke looked at Naruto like he was crazy. How did Naruto know about his brother's whereabouts? Where was Itachi now? How would Itachi react to seeing his brother after so long? Kakashi was surprised, he wasn't expecting this turn of events.

Zaraki, unlike his teammate, had a more simplistic and more prudent response. He looked at Naruto in confusion. "Whoa, back up here. Who is this Itachi you're talking about? Is he strong?" He asked, trying to make sense of the turn of events.

Naruto looked inquisitively at Sasuke, as if to ask if he was going to be the one to explain. Sasuke shook his head and motioned for Naruto to carry on. "Itachi Uchiha is Sasuke's brother, he was a genius, even among the Uchiha, and swiftly rose through the village's ranks. He was an ANBU Captain by the age of thirteen. A couple of years ago, he killed the entire Uchiha clan in a night and ran away from the village. The only one left from that night is Sasuke," Naruto explained, then, remembering he hadn't answered the other boy's question, continued: "Yes, he is strong. No single ninja kills the most powerful clan in Hidden Leaf in a single night on their own by being weak."

Zaraki nodded his head, indicating that he understood the events.

"Naruto, how do you know the whereabouts of Itachi?" Kakashi asked, legitimately curious as to how the boy came to know about such sensitive information. The village had been seeking that information for the last two years in an attempt to find the teenager that had weakened their village to such an extent.

"That is a secret that I can't tell you about just yet," Naruto replied, grinning madly at the look Kakashi gave him because of the answer. "It's about time that we get to bed. Kakashi, Zaraki, we will see you next morning."

Kakashi and Zaraki got up from their spots on the floor, Kakashi again getting up slower due to his stiff body, and promptly left the room in silence. Sasuke and Naruto lay there for a while, not talking or doing anything, trying to go to sleep.

Naruto tossed and turned, but the memories of his past just wouldn't leave him. He was trying his best to just push the memories away and forget them, but the harder he tried, the more the memories taunted him.

"Naruto, you still awake?" Sasuke asked from the other side of the now dark room. He heard the tossing and turning, so he was pretty sure Naruto was either having a terrible nightmare and needed to be woken up, or was still awake. Still, he was satisfied to hear a grunt coming from Naruto, signifying that he was indeed awake. "You haven't told me, how did you survive the torture?"

"Depends. Can I trust you with S Rank secrets?" Naruto asked. Sasuke sat up bolt upright and looked at him incredulously. What was he talking about? S Rank secrets? Those were all punishable by death! How did Naruto come across such a thing?

"You can trust me. I don't plan on leaving the village any time soon. But isn't the revelation of any S Rank secret punishable by death? Both of us will get killed if they find out about this," Sasuke sounded slightly panicked. Only slightly.

"No, it's fine. I am exempt from the execution since the secret and the subsequent rule banning it from being spoken is for my safety, thus I am allowed to tell anyone I deem worthy." Naruto said, while the look on his counterparts face was getting more and more dubious. "You remember of the Kyubi incident eleven years ago, correct?" Sasuke nodded.

"They told us in the Academy that the Kyubi was killed by the 4th Hokage, that was a lie. The Kyubi is a Demon Lord far too powerful for a human to kill, so the 4th did the next best thing and sealed the beast in a newborn child. Me." Sasuke's eyes widened, almost becoming as wide as it had when he was told he was going to get a chance to meet Itachi. "Due to Kurama, that's the Kyubi's real name, being sealed inside me, I heal faster than pretty much anyone. That doesn't mean that my injuries heal instantly, it's just that if I die, he dies too, so he does whatever is necessary to keep me alive. It's painful, and Kurama healing me over and over again is a slow process, but he keeps me alive."

Sasuke collapsed back onto his futon, trying to take in everything he had been told. Naruto knew it wasn't easy for the guy to accept something so drastic so easily, but at least he wasn't calling him a liar or demon child. Yet.

Sighing, Naruto tried again to sleep, and this time the comforting darkness overtook him.

-TT-

A week had passed since they had gotten to Tazuna's house, Kakashi had healed nicely and Team 7 was doing well with their training. Sasuke could stand on water, Sakura could walk on water for a few minutes without breathing hard and Zaraki's swordsmanship was becoming a lot more disciplined. Naruto had trained himself too and he could keep his Rinnegan active for long periods of time without any severe drawbacks.

Currently they were all, minus Inari, having breakfast at the dining table and conversing about what they were going to do that day.

"I think we all should go with Tazuna today, something tells me that something is going to happen today..." Naruto suggested, eating another spoonful of his cereal. When Sakura looked at him doubtfully, he continued. "Trust me on this, my instincts have never let me down."

"So what are your instincts telling you now?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"That Zabuza and his partner are going to attack Tazuna today," Naruto answered simply, still eating his cereal at a normal pace, which for him meant that he was eating five times the amount that Sakura was eating. "But we should leave a clone or something behind, just in case they come after Tsunami or Inari to take them as hostages."

Kakashi nodded, understanding his reasoning behind it. He had seen wars, and one thing that wars had taught him was that your opponent never fought fairly, they would always have some kind of underhanded method prepared to weaken your forces.

"So who's going to fight who when we actually engage the enemy?" Sasuke asked, stopping his chewing momentarily to ask the question. He too was digging into his morning cereal, though not as hastily as Naruto.

"I will hold off Zabuza to begin with-" before he could continue, he was interrupted by Sakura.

"Why would you fight Zabuza? It should be Sasuke that fights him," Naruto had his hopes up after the display the night before, that Sakura would understand the fact that life wasn't so simple for them. Apparently, the way Sakura coped with those revelations was to act even more like a fangirl towards Sasuke.

"Because I know I won't be killed immediately against Zabuza, so I can hold him off for a while." Naruto explained, trying to stick to reason and not let the demeaning comments from Sakura rile him up.

"Wait, what will I be doing?" Kakashi asked, slightly surprised that his charge was planning on fighting the stronger enemy while Kakashi was still here.

"Simple. You are fighting his partner," Naruto answered, while everyone in the room gaped at him.

"Wait, why the hell is Kakashi fighting his partner when Zabuza is obviously going to be stronger?" Sasuke asked in outrage. He was starting to warm up to Naruto, but that didn't mean he understood everything about the Jinchuriki, and neither did it mean that he followed Naruto's thought process. That last statement left him more than a little confused.

"It's simple logic. Zabuza's partner's abilities are unknown to us. For all we know, he is too strong for any of us to handle. Kakashi is the strongest of us-" at this, Kakashi smirked a little. So he still thought Kakashi was stronger than him? "-so we let him deal with the unknown. If we find that the partner isn't all that strong, then Zaraki and Sasuke can double team him while me and Kakashi take out Zabuza. Sakura is the weakest of us so she protects Tazuna at all times and doesn't interfere in the fighting."

"I see. I should have thought something this basic up myself. But credit where it's due, it's a pretty solid plan," Kakashi complimented, eliciting a shake of the head from Naruto. Kakashi looked at him questioningly.

"It's not solid. It has one major flaw," Naruto stopped eating for a moment and held up his index finger. "What if there is a large enemy force other than just Zabuza and his partner?"

"Stop thinking so much. We will figure something out when we fight," Zaraki interrupted, and everyone went back to their breakfast, not talking to anyone around them.

-TT-

The group walked towards the unfinished bridge in a loose formation, with Zaraki and Sasuke at the front, Sakura and Naruto on either side of Tazuna, and Kakashi right behind the client. They had decided to take Naruto's advice and follow the bridge builder to work, leaving only a few clones behind to protect his family.

Naruto was on edge, and like every other time that he was in a situation like this, Kurama started to grumble.

"_**Brat, for the last time, quit your SHIVERING!**_" Kurama shouted in his mind, making his head hurt a little. Normally, his head only started hurting if he talked to Kurama for a prolonged period of time or if the Demon Lord felt like screaming at his container.

"_I'm not shivering, just thinking about the possibilities. I have to hold Zabuza back, what if I wind up dead?_" Naruto thought back, still not calming down. Either the people around him didn't notice him getting so wound up or, in Kakashi's case, decided to ignore the nervousness.

"_**Don't worry, brat**__**.**__** I don't think anyone can actually kill you. Remember, I healed yo**__**u from a punctered lung and heart before, though it was painful for you, brat, and it took a long time to **__**properly heal,**_" Kurama thought back, trying to pacify the Jinchuriki.

"_So you can heal a decapitated head?_"

"_**That might be a problem ...**_"

"_Thanks, __that really helps,_" Naruto mentally answered. Seeing the bridge come into view, he cut the mental link.

Something wasn't right about the bridge. Wave Country was a coastal country, so the swirling mist was ever present, but the mist around the bridge was way too thick to be natural. There also seemed to be pained groans and sounds of metal slashing through flesh being emitted from the village.

The ninja had no time to ponder this, however, as Zabuza and a masked hunter nin came into view, walking side by side out of the mist. Zabuza's Kubikiribocho was strapped to his back, he still worse camo trousers and no shirt, with the harness for his sword going around both shoulders and one side of his stomach.

The hunter nin was wearing more clothes. Other than the mask, he was wearing a light blue kimono, with pink flowers dotted here and there, along with grey trousers that came up to his shins, secured around his shins with ninja wraps to prevent any snagging.

They walked slowly, leisurely, as if they had all the time in the world to complete their missions, which gave Naruto the chance to take off his jacket and remove his weights. He would have taken them off before they set out, seeing as they were going in prepared to fight, but truthfully, he had forgotten to.

Nodding towards his companions, Kakashi darted towards Zabuza's partner, only to be intercepted by Zabuza himself.

"Your fight is with me, Kakashi. Don't worry, I'm sure that blonde student of yours can keep Haku company," Zabuza's grating voice was grating his nerves. This was not going according to plan.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I am not Kakashi's student. My teacher is a former ... teammate of yours, shall we say?" Naruto said, walking behind Kakashi with his hands behind his back. Sasuke and Sakura looked to where Naruto was supposed to have been standing and wondered how on earth the blonde had gotten to Kakashi that quickly.

Zabuza was intrigued, but he felt a trap of some sorts coming. He knew the orange wearing menace wasn't an idiot and neither did he say anything to the enemy without a reason, so the likelihood of him just making conversation was low. But still, Zabuza allowed himself to be baited.

"Who are you talking about, boy?" Hook.

"I'll tell you, if you fight me," Naruto answered, not wavering in the tiniest bit as he glared into Zabuza's eyes. "It should be fun to test myself out against a ninja as strong as you."

"Why not fight Haku instead? If you are an apprentice, then shouldn't you fight an apprentice yourself?" Zabuza asked, trying to outwit Naruto. He really didn't want his precious apprentice going at it against someone as strong as Kakashi.

"Are you sure you want to test out your apprentice against the apprentice of Kisame Hoshigaki?" Line.

Zabuza's eyes widened. It had been years since he last heard that name, and he wasn't liking his options now that he had heard it. On one hand, he could let his apprentice fight Copy Ninja Kakashi, someone with abilities on par with himself, or let him fight against the apprentice of Kisame, who had unknown abilities.

"All right, fine. I can't just let Kisame-senpai's **[1]** apprentice just roam around like he wants." Sinker.

Kakashi looked at Naruto like he grew a dozen extra heads. How had Naruto just manipulated Zabuza into fighting him with mere words, when Kakashi was already sweating at the prospect of their battle plan going awry. Kakashi hadn't even been considering any ways of trapping Zabuza. Kakashi sighed slightly, he really was getting soft.

"Kakashi, the fake hunter nin is all yours," with that Naruto was away at Zabuza, throwing a few shuriken and running off a little ways to get some space. He really didn't want Sasuke or Kakashi to see his Rinnegan, it would be a massive pain to answer all the questions and he would rather keep his Bloodline secret until the Chunin Exams were done with.

Kakashi gave the fake hunter nin one look and activated his Sharingan. The fight was on!

**A/R: Okay, a lot shorter than my recent chapters and an awkward ending, but seriously, I got lazy.**

**I got nothing much to say, other than PLEASE REVIEW! I beg of you, reviews are like a drug, they keep me going. Thanks for all those that reviewed before, it really helps me carry on.**

**[1]: Senpai is a suffix referring to someone that has been in your profession**** for a longer time than you. Like a senior or something. Someone older than you at school. You get the idea.**


	15. Brunt of the Storm

**The Pathless Sage**

_**Beta read by I before A except after K**_

**A/R: The poll about Zaraki is still there, so if you haven't yet, please go vote.**

**I got a good response to last chapter, a decent amount of reviews. So yeah, I can't stop myself from writing so I decided to just go ahead and write up the next chapter in the library, since my mum dragged me along anyway.**

**On with the story!**

Kakashi stared his opponent down with no visible feelings, daring the younger fighter to make the first move. Years of training and life or death situations had taught him that taking the initiative usually ended with you taking the first hit, not dealing it. So Kakashi waited, observing his enemy.

Haku didn't know what to do. Over the years as Zabuza's tool in training, he had been taught over and over again to suppress his emotions. Even though he was normally rather good at doing so, facing down someone so infamous still instilled fear in him. He was almost the same age as the Gennin on Kakashi's team, and he wasn't as experienced as he would have liked to feel.

With Zabuza and Naruto, the fight was already raging at full force. The storm had begun, with Zabuza providing the rain and thunder, while Naruto provided the wind required to keep it going. Literally. Zabuza was throwing around water based Jutsu and the occasional lightning, whereas Naruto was constantly on the defence with wind natured Jutsu of his own.

"**Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu**," molding as little Chakra as he needed to power the Jutsu, Zabuza spewed out a few globs of highly pressured water, the first one aimed straight at Naruto's face while the others cut off all routes of escape from the first. Zabuza was expecting Naruto to use his **Wind Wall Jutsu** again, but was surprised to see otherwise.

With an impressive show of speed, he dodged to his right, moving so fast that even the projectile that was meant to cut him off missed. Continuing with his trajectory, he ran at Zabuza's left, open flank, his Rinnegan flaring menacingly.

Seeing the change in the boy's eyes for the first time in the conflict, the ex Kiri ninja was rather surprised to see purple eyes glaring at him, rather than the blue and white that he was expecting. The boy's earlier clumsiness was also gone, replaced by an elegant, fluid looking motion.

Starting with a right hook, Naruto wasn't surprised to see Zabuza's left hand moving up swiftly to block. Ignoring the failed attempt to blow his opponent's head off, he used his momentum to bounce back up from the left, his fist flying in from underneath his enemy's guard. He was rather perturbed to feel a very hard, cold substance meeting with the speeding appendage.

Seeing the uppercut coming, Zabuza did the only thing he thought was logical at the time. He used the flat side of his blade to block the punch. Not only did it protect him from harm's way, it also had the advantage of injuring his opponent, who now backed off, sporting a lightly bruised left hand.

With a sigh, Naruto got back into his Taijutsu stance, which was little more than just standing there with his hands hanging in front of his face with his feet wide apart. While Naruto was rather good at actually fighting, his beginning stances were still poor.

"I really regret not bringing Ryujinjakka right now, it's annoying to fight a swordsman without a sword of your own," Naruto said, moving to pull out a kunai to even out the playing field just a little. He still hadn't learned any proper nature manipulation, other than the defensive Jutsu taught to him at the Academy, so he settled for a normal kunai, not a more expensive Chakra conducting one.

"Are you telling me you're trained in the way of the sword?" Zabuza asked, quite impressed by the young Gennin. It wasn't often that he was pleased by a Gennin, definitely not one from Konoha. He usually thought they were too soft to be proper ninja, except for the odd genius like Kakashi and Itachi. His opinions were not baseless.

"No, but I do know the basics of how to slice people apart with a sword. I might not be a trained swordsman, but it is still better than trying to fight someone that has a sword with my bare hands. I might have a lot of training under my belt, but I still can't break steel with my bare fist, and definitely not one that is made out of a Chakra conducting metal like yours." Naruto replied, grateful for the break he was getting from fighting. His job, after all, was to stall Zabuza, not beat him.

Deciding he had enough of letting the boy rest up, Zabuza charged in, his zanbato aiming to cleave his target in half horizontally. At the last second, Naruto brought up his hand with the kunai and stopped the massive sword dead in his track, which surprised Zabuza further. To block something as heavy as a zanbato with nothing more than a simple kunai was a feat beyond any normal eleven year old.

Sakura, Sasuke and Zaraki looked on in the thin mist, observing the two fights going on at the time. Well, one fight and a stare down, Kakashi and Haku still hadn't bothered moving from where they stood, seemingly content with only trying to subdue the other with glares. They did, however, glance at their partners from time to time to check how they were faring in their own fights. Sakura was still in denial of Naruto's skill, Sasuke looked on in open envy while Zaraki daydreamed about killing ... erm sparring with the other boy.

Seeing his chance, Haku charged Kakashi with senbons in his hand while the older man was sneaking a glance towards Naruto over his own shoulder. The result was Kakashi being impaled through the neck with the needles of death. Haku was almost ready to celebrate his victory, but his joy was short-lived as Kakashi exploded in a cloud of smoke.

"Nice try, but I am not one to drop my guard in front of an enemy," Kakashi admonished, all the while charging at Haku with a drawn kunai. Turning in near hysterical panic, Haku brought his senbons up just in time to block the speeding kunai, but not quickly enough to block the shuriken Kakashi had sneakily thrown underneath his kunai arm with the help of his other one.

Pain shot through his abdomen as the shuriken dug into his flesh. Luckily, in his attempt to be sneaky, Kakashi had favoured stealth over strength, which resulted in the shuriken flying slower and only causing a flesh wound rather than puncturing one of the many important organs that was located within the unprotected patch of flesh.

Finally breaking out of his reverie, Zaraki rushed at Haku's back while his attention was still on Kakashi. Their plan was to test out how good this fake missing nin was, but there was no need to keep him alive longer than he needed to. His sword came out of its sheath smoothly, despite the jagged cutting edge, looking as deadly and evil as it always had. Zaraki aimed a slash at the fake missing nin's open back.

Sensing danger, Haku tried to turn around, but wasn't fast enough as he felt a sharp pain shoot rapidly through his side. The diagonal slash that was aimed at his back caught his side and the side of his chest as he tried to turn. Fortunately for him, the sword only cut through his skin and flesh, leaving his ribs and lungs intact. Well, partially intact in the case of his ribs, as the sword left a noticeable scratch on his bones. The sword was sharp and jagged, so naturally it sawed through any bone it came in contact with.

Sakura's eyes widened in terror and disgust, she had heard about it being a part of the life of a shinobi and a kunoichi, but never before had she seen someone attacking to kill, not to wound. Though the fight didn't involve her and she had heard stories that were far worse, seeing someone nearly mortally wounded for the first time in her life would leave her scarred for the rest of her life, the same way that the stories about her teammate and teacher's life did the night before.

Sasuke, no stranger to death and destruction himself, was still a little disturbed to see someone his own age attempting to kill someone of similar age to himself with a straight face. When he decided to pursue the way of the shinobi, he resolved to do whatever he needed to do to get stronger, kill if need be, but he hadn't counted on being reminded of that vow so soon.

Naruto wasn't paying attention to his enemy's nigh mortal peril, he had his own problems to deal with. He was finding out the hard way that no matter how good you were with Taijutsu, an inexperienced fighter like himself was hard pressed to fight against a master of Kenjutsu like Zabuza. Especially so since his opponent had years of practice on the battlefield to get his skills and intention to kill sharpened, while Naruto only had experience doing drills and the occasional sparring.

Every attempt Naruto made to strike Zabuza was returned with a vicious counter attack, every attempt to evade was met with a blockade of his escape route, every attempt to block was shot down with another strike. Now that Zabuza was treating him like a threat, he was reminded just why Zabuza was such a feared ninja throughout the lands.

Slowly, wounds started to appear here and there on Naruto's body from close calls with Zabuza's sword. While he always somehow managed to block in time, Zabuza was getting closer and closer to cleaving him in however many pieces he intended to, while never wearing himself out with the use of Jutsu.

It wasn't all bad news for him though. While Zabuza was only using his Kubikirihocho and no Chakra, using such a large blade was still taxing on the body and the ex Mist ninja was starting to show small signs of exhaustion while the blonde Jinchuriki was still running around like the crazy ball of energy that he was. Inhuman training schedules, Chakra reserves of an Uzumaki supplemented with the Chakra of a Bijuu created a monstrosity of endurance.

"Brat, stop running around. I was starting to think that you were actually capable of doing something, unlike those useless brats over there, but it seems like you were useless too," Zabuza taunted, while visible signs of how tired he was started to show in the form of sweat on his face.

Utilising only a single handseal due to the hours of extra practice in the Academy supplementary classes, Naruto sent out the windy version of his best offensive Jutsu. "**Wind Style: Slicing Wind Wall Jutsu**." A wall of raging wind started to form around Naruto, spinning around him like a tempest and moving outwards to consume his opponent.

Not expecting the sudden use of Jutsu after such a long time without one, and his reflexes dulled due to exhaustion setting in, he was caught up in the slicing vortex. Pain shot through his entire body as the Jutsu started to cut shallow gashes all over his body. While not life threatening, even after considering blood loss, it was a rather painful experience.

"_Who would have ever thought that overpowering a __**Wind Wall Jutsu**_ _had the eff__ect if cutting stuff up around you? The wonders of overpowered Jutsu, turning a simple D Rank defensive Jutsu into a B Rank offensive one._" Naruto thought gleefully, as he watched his first original technique wreak havoc on the Jounin.

"Why you shitty little brat!" An enraged Zabuza emerged from the dissipated attacked, sporting several light cuts all over his body, ignoring the monumental amount of pain through sheer combined force of anger and will.

At that moment, all activity stopped as the mist cleared slightly, followed by a loud, oily cackle that rang through the air and poisoned the ear of all that listened. People often classified others as evil due to their actions. While almost always the presumptions were misguided, sometimes they were spot on. That presumption was true for the cackling _monster._

A small, sleazy looking man stood on the beginning of the bridge they were on now, laughing at the predicament that he had put the occupants of the bridge in. Gato stood there laughing, imagining the looks on their shocked faces, imagining his own victory. Victory, as he was soon to find out, that was not earned. Victory that he would not taste on this day.

The mist cleared further, revealing an army of hired thugs and barely trained samurai behind Gato. What they seemed to lack in skill and strength, they made up with their size and their sheer number. There seemed to be hundreds of them, all wielding some form of weapon or another, mostly swords of various shapes and sizes, though a few maces and clubs were present here and there.

"Gato, you traitorous bastard. What is the meaning of this?" Zabuza shouted, having stopped a few feet away from Naruto. He was still seething over what the boy had done to him, but his attention was now directed towards Gato and his army rather than the Gennin in front of him.

"What does it look like? Your services were too expensive, so I decided to terminate our contract," Gato said, his oily voice taking on a thick, superior tone. "Get 'em boys!" With a casual wave of his hand, he ordered his army to advance on the small number of ninja. They approached slowly, sure of the slaughter that was to come, as the ninja got ready to defend themselves against the assault.

Yes, there would be a slaughter.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a Chakra signature spiked through the roof and into the heavens above, its demonic feel making everyone present shiver.

Kakashi panicked, looking around frantically for the source of the Chakra. He had felt something similar on that fateful night eleven years ago and the thought of that monster rampaging again made his heart freeze.

Zabuza was excited and scared at the same time. It had been a long time since he felt a Chakra signature this strong. Not since his assassination attempt on the Mizukage failed, had he felt something this chilling. He was rather surprised, though, since he knew it couldn't be Kakashi that was putting out that demonic Chakra, since he knew for a fact Kakashi was a normal Jounin. "_Who's Chakra is that?_" He thought.

Sakura and Sasuke collapsed under the onslaught of the bloodlust that permeated through the air. They had felt Kakashi and Zabuza stare each other down during their first encounter, but that bloodlust was insignificant compared to what was in the air right now. If Kakashi and Zabuza's thirst for blood was as chilling as a hot summer's day, whereas this was the cold, dark night of winter, and a blizzard was raging all around them.

Gato was terrified. For the first time in his life, he was truly scared of death.

**A/R: Medium sized chapter, but I was at the library and I was really pushed for time. Be glad I updated even though I am on hiatus due to a lack of means for typing.**

**That was a rather odd place to leave the story, and a sad attempt at a cliffhanger. Just be warned, there is a rather annoying surprise in store for you guys in the next chapter.**

**Please, please review. They make me feel better even though I don't have a working computer anymore.**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant=*=*=**

**I don't get it. At the beginning of the story, Kishimoto made it seem like there were only 9 Gennin graduating per year, that there was a really small amount of ninja in a village. Then suddenly, you have this war, and you somehow get 60k Ninja coming of out of nowhere? Where are all of these forces coming from? I get it that they are cannon fodder, but shouldn't you also keep a sense of continuity in the number of ninja in a Village from the beginning of a story to the end of it?**

**Also, what is it with the Jutsu in Naruto? Kakashi is said to have mastered over a thousand Jutsu, but throughout the story, I don't think I have seen him use even a hundred different ones. What is the point of overplaying the number of techniques a person has if you are not going to back up the numbers?**

**=*=*=Personal Opinion Rant End=*=*=**


	16. A Mindless Slaughter

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Another un beta read chapter. I am going to get them all read sometime later when I actually have steady access to a computer and a means to communicate with my beta reader via instant message.**

**Poll about Zaraki still doesn't have enough votes, I am going for at least 50 before closing it. And I still have time before I push him into elemental manipulation, so no need to rush things.**

**That cliffhanger got the perfect reaction I was looking for, so yay. I am once again at the library and writing due to the fact that my mother dragged me here. Again. So I might as well use my time productively, right?**

**On with the story!**

"_What is that, Kurama-nii?_" As soon as Naruto felt the demonic Chakra spike in the air, he set up a mental link with Kurama. If anyone was going to have the answers to what was going on, it would be the Lord of Demons.

"_**I don't know, brat. All I know is that this isn't my doing. Whatever is putting out that Chakra is an outside source, nothing is coming from your body,**_" Kurama replied. He was slightly worked up, for reasons unknown to all but himself, and that made him raise his mental voice a little, which was giving Naruto a headache.

"_Of course it's not me, I would feel it if I was radiating Chakra. I am not an idiot, thank you, I can tell when my body is molding Chakra,_" Naruto's thoughts took on a snarky tone, as if Kurama was pointing out the obvious. Which he was, if one was to be completely truthful.

"_**Hey, don't take that tone with me-**_" Kurama's irritated response was cut off by a joyous laughter, laughter that was coming from Zaraki.

"It's been a while since I cut loose like this," without saying a word more, Zaraki charged into the midst of the hesitating army of thugs. They didn't know what it was, but something about the evil in the air told them to run the hell away from this weird kid.

"Wait, is he the one that is radiating that evil Chakra?" Kakashi asked dubiously, both thankful that it wasnt the Kyubi running rampant and scared that there was more than one person around that had a demon sealed in them.

"I think he might be," Zabuza replied, not taking his eye off the rampaging Gennin. If it was his senior's apprentice, he might have half understood what was going on, but to see another Gennin, one trained by Kakashi, turning into an image of carnage was unexpected, to say the least.

Zaraki was having the time of his life. He cut men down left, right and center. They may not have been fighting back, so he wasn't as thrilled as he was in the middle of a life and death struggle, but he was thrilled nonetheless. He loved fighting against so many opponents at once.

The hired army were slowly starting to come around, starting to realise what was happening. Seeing the man next to him cut down, a relatively normal looking man with a mace in hand snapped out of his stupor. As Zaraki turned to slice apart an enemy behind him, the man with the mace swung down, hoping to impale the kind on the head.

Sensing something behind him, Zaraki whirled around, taking out the man in front of him in the process. Seeing the mace descending on his head, he sliced the shaft in half, before cutting through the arm that was holding up the now severed weapon. The man screamed in agony as soon as the shock of having his arm taken wore off, but not for long. He was soon relieved of his screaming head.

Finally, the screaming shook them up badly enough for them to jar back to their senses. Seeing the kid in front of them lay waste to their ranks, the shouted a loud battle cry and charged him.

Zaraki grinned. He was going to have fun massacring these weak morons.

Slash, cut, stab, impale. Pull the sword out, whirl around and behead the idiot behind. He kept going like that, not bothering to wipe his sword of the blood as it moved fluidly, drawing blood from a different victim with almost every action.

They tried their best, but no one got anywhere close to him for a long while. He looked bulky for a child his age, but his agility was top notch. Anyone withing three feet of him was cut down or sawed apart. Blood, entrails and bones flew everywhere and onto almost all visible surfaces, including the people in range.

Feeling the internal organs of their temporary comrades flow onto their own bodies scared the mercenaries greatly. The fear was rolling off of them in waves now, all their previous confidence forgotten. They were getting the slaughter they came to witness.

Too bad they were the ones being slaughtered.

-TT-

A cloaked figure stood atop a cylindrical building, paying no heed to the endless sheet of rain pouring on and around him. A head of straight red hair was visible over the high collar of the, framing a pale face with multiple piercings dotted around everywhere.

"Nagato, are you sure it was smart?" A blue haired woman asked from behind him, adorned with the same black cloak with the red clouds. Unlike Nagato, the woman's face was unmarred, no piercings visible on her skin.

"I did what had to be done," Nagato replied, his voice weak but clear.

"Madara will not be pleased," Konan warned, hoping that her friend would reconsider his decision on the matter.

"There are several problems with that statement," Nagato started, drawing Konan's attention. "First of all, I am doing this because I don't want to go along with that man's plans, but I can't do anything to directly interfere. Second, I doubt he will even find out about this happening for a long while yet, and even if he does find out, he won't dare do anything against me. The same way I can't oppose him without grave repercussions, he cannot oppose me without repercussions. Third, I highly doubt that man is who he claims to be."

"What do you mean, Nagato? That man even has the Sharingan to prove he is an Uchiha. No other Uchiha in history was as powerful as him, not even Itachi." Konan was starting to get worked up. Her partner was spewing nonsense!

"He may have a Sharingan, but what is his proof that he is an Uchiha? Kakashi Hatake has long proven that you don't have to be an Uchiha to wield a Sharingan. And as far as being strong goes, he may be stronger than Itachi, but he is in no shape or form strong enough to rival the Madara from the legends," Nagato explained, still in his weak and stoic voice that somehow rang with regal power. "And as for being too old to be as powerful as he used to be, that isn't possible. I have personally seen the rotting corpse of Madara, so no matter what he says, he cannot be Madara."

"But so what? Where is the point in helping the Nine Tails' Jinchuriki? It only gets in the way of our plans!" Konans voice was starting to become uncharacteristically high. It was a couple octaves higher than normal, at the least.

"Where is the point of helping your family?" Nagato asked, almost sarcastically. "I don't need a reason to help him, other that he is family."

"What do you mean Nagato? I thought your parents were killed? He can't be your brother, you were an only child."

"Ah, a sibling isnt the only relation a person can have. No, Naruto is my cousin. A distant cousin, but a cousin nonetheless," for the first time in their extended conversation, Nagato turned and looked Konan straight in the eye. "Naruto is the last member of the Uzumaki head family. He is the heir to the Uzumaki clan, the clan that I am a descendant of."

"But Nagato, that isn't reason enough to help our target."

"Of course it is. What other reason do I need?" Nagato let just a little bit of frustration leak into his voice. Never before had Konan opposed him so adamantly, but this wasn't a topic he was willing to budge on.

"I know you better than that Nagato, you don't do anything unless you have a personal motive in the matter." Konan replied, suddenly becoming suspicious of what her partner was up to. Whenever he got secretive, it meant he was doing something idiotic. By her opinions, anyway.

Nagato sighed. She knew him too well, alright. He never managed to hide anything from her, no matter how hard he tried to. "He has the Rinnegan, like me. Unlike me, he has the Chakra required to use the Rinnegan without harming his body. I used the Rinnegan without the right Chakra potency, and you can see what happened to my body."

"So, what are you getting at?"

"I am a dying man, Konan. I have a decade to live, at most and for an Uzumaki, that is a hellishly short amount of time. I want to see the Rinnegan fully mastered before I die, I want to see the secrets of the Seventh Path, the only Path of the Rinnegan that I haven't been able to use.

-TT-

Bodies of the dead lay around his feet, dead men that he killed with his own blade. The fresh blood still dripped from his blade, he didn't bother to clean it yet. Zaraki just stood there, grinning maniacally and just revelling in the marvelous exhileration that he was feeling at the time.

Gato stood shivering, he was scared of the demon in front of him, scared of the blade that the demon was holding, scared for his own life, scared of _death_. It was a foreign feeling to him. All his life, he thought that he could cheat death for as long as he wished as long as he had enough money. He had never paid any attention to anything other than the money that he was making. Not family, not people, not the way he was making his money, not the horrendous crimes he was comitting while making the money. No, his entire life, he just thought about the money.

Zaraki turned back towards his comrades, away from Gato, and started walking, slicing his sword through the air sharply to clean it of the blood. Gato was relieved, the demon had turned away from him, he was safe for the time being. He wasn't going to be killed, he was going to be alright.

"Zabuza, since we aren't enemies anymore, can you lend me your sword?" Naruto asked, turning towards the man and away from the scene of the mass execution that occured moments ago.

"Why are you assuming we aren't enemies anymore, and why should I give you my sword even if we weren't enemies?" Zabuza retorted, not liking the idea of handing his only prized possession to someone else, even if temporarily.

"Well, your client has terminated his contract, so there is no reason for you to kill Tazuna, and as such there is no reason for us to fight. As for why you should _lend_ me your sword, it's because you're going to love what I am about to do with it," something about Narutos tone of voice made him shiver.

"You had better return it to me once you are done with whatever you plan on doing," Zabuza said, as he hefted the sword from the floor and handed it to the Gennin. Once he had given his sword over, he moved to see what became of his apprentice.

Holding the sword in both hands, Naruto disappeared and reappeared behind Gato in an impressive burst of speed. Being a normal civilian, despite his large bounty of riches, Gato was unaware of what was going on even after his head was cleaved clean off his shoulder.

Naruto was surprised. He had expected to feel terrible after his first kill, or feel some kind of remorse for the man he killed, but he felt nothing. In fact, he was glad that he had gotten rid of the stain on the face of the earth.

He also expected it to be hard to swing the large sword in his hand, but it was easy for him. Wielding the large sword came naturally somehow, even though he had never even seen a sword of its size before seeing this one. Kubikirihocho felt as light as a feather to him, but that might have been due to the insane amount of indirect weight training he did every day.

All of the other live occupants of the bridge didn't notice, but the easy usage of the zanbato didn't slip Zabuza's eyes. He hadn't seen anyone use the sword that easily since he saw the last user of the sword, his predecessor as a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. He couldn't worry about that now, though. He had an injured apprentice to take care of ... err berate for weakness.

"Kakashi, is Haku dead or alive?" Zabuza asked, looking down on the prone form of his protege. He was expecting to see a gaping gash on his side, not a perfectly bandaged up wound that was no longer bleeding. "Wait, did you guys wrap him up or something?"

"Haku is still alive, and is now out of danger._ She _didn't lose too much blood before we bandaged her up, so she should be fine. The wound wasn't too bad, so she can be moved back to Tazuna's house for recovery." Kakashi replied, stressing the 'she' in every sentence.

"So you found out that Haku is a girl?"

"Yeah."

Before the awkward conversation could continue any further, Naruto walked up to both men with a clean Kubikirihocho and interrupted the conversation, effectively taking out all the awkwardness. "Nice sword, you can have it back now." Naruto said, handing over the massive cleaver.

Naruto walked away, towards Tazuna, leaving behind a bored and tired Kakashi and a doting Zabuza. As he neared Tazuna, he threw a spherical object towards him. Tazuna caught it, and promptly threw it into the ocean with a surprised yelp. The object was Gato's head.

"Mission accomplished!" Naruto announced.

**A/R: That is the end of Wave, they will be heading back next chapter and such.**

**Sorry for the long delay, chapters won't be coming out as fast as they did when I had a laptop, since it is rather difficult to type and talk to your friends at the same time.**


	17. Explanations, A Changed Sasuke

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Yay me. Over 200 reviews, though I never thought I would get that many, I do aim for higher than I have right now.**

**Poll for Zaraki still up, go vote if you haven't yet.**

**The Wave arc isn't done just yet, it will be finished off co****mpletely this chapter. This is mostly the bit where I patch up things in the Wave arc and the transition to the next arc, which will NOT be the Chunin exams. I am making up an arc, and I am afraid (literally) to say that I will be introducing another character from another anime, but not from bleach this time around.**

**On with the story!**

Sakura cheered a bit when Naruto put it that way, but Tazuna was put off that he just had a human head thrown at him by a child not even half his age. Sasuke was still his emo self, but he was celebrating on the inside. Zaraki was still staring off into space, on a high from killing so many people at once.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, kids, but the mission isn't over just yet," Kakashi felt like a villain in a movie when he said that. All of his charges, including Naruto, looked at him like he had just taken their favourite puppy and crucified it.

"What do you mean, sensei?" Sakura asked in a small voice, sounding very hurt.

"The mission still isn't over. The mission was to guard Tazuna until he completed his bridge, not until Gato was killed. So yeah, we are still going to be stuck here for a few more days." Everyone sighed. They were about sick of the gloomy atmosphere of the country, and more than a bit homesick.

"Well you guys still got your mission to do, but me and Haku got somewhere else to be," Zabuza announced, turning around to head away from the bridge.

"Where are you heading now, Zabuza?" Naruto asked suddenly, stopping the older man in his tracks.

"..." Zabuza didn't reply, but shifted from foot to foot awkwardly.

Naruto sighed. He knew this was going to happen. "Face it Zabuza, you are a nuke-nin and have nowhere else to go now that you are out of a contract."

"SHUT UP BRAT! I don't need to hear that from you!" Zabuza replied sharply.

"Why don't you come back to Konoha with us?" Though Sakura's request was a naive one, it was the most plausible at the moment. It was extremely difficult for a missing-nin to survive in the wild, especially when they were on their own without any financial backing.

"We are missing-nin, we are traitors. No village in the world would take us in, no matter what kind of powers we brought to them." Zabuza replied bitterly.

"Eh, I think you would find that statement to be incorrect," Zabuza looked at Naruto like he had gone utterly insane and declared he was going to take over the world with a single shuriken. "Hokage-jiji is an understanding man. He would help you out, if you pledge your undying loyalty to him and actually stick to it. As for Haku, well let's just say Konoha worships Bloodline limits."

"They had better not put her in any stupid breeding programs," Zabuza's voice was low and threatening, promising extreme pain if he did not get the reply he wanted.

"Don't worry about that. The Council hates my guts inside and out, but even they won't be able to do anything against their own laws. So if I have my way with them, and I can talk to Old Man Hokage about it first, there won't be any problems." Naruto explained.

"Why would a simple Gennin like you have any ability to contact your Kage? I thought it was usually Chunin and Jounin that relayed messages to the Kage of their villages." Zabuza was suddenly suspicious. Something about this sounded fishy. Kage never reduced themselves to talking simple Gennin.

"You would find that we do many things differently in Konoha." Kakashi answered elusively. He had sensed Naruto's discomfort in talking about his situation, so he decided to bail the poor boy out.

"Alright, alright. Let's get back to my house first, then we can all talk properly over dinner. I don't feel like standing for any more time." Tazuna griped.

-TT-

Thick, tense silence lay over the dinner table as the occupants ate without a single sound. It was rare that two groups of people that fought for their lives against each other, and then suddenly started eating dinner together, thus the tense atmosphere.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!" Tazuna screamed, holding his head.

"Yeah, this mood is rather tense for a dinner table," Naruto added his two cents.

"Well, what do you expect, brat? I won't be going around making casual conversation with my former enemy." Zabuza replied, somewhat wryly.

"Whatever. Zaraki, now that you are off your murder high, can you answer me some questions?" Kakashi asked, turning towards the student that he was addressing. He stopped eating and actually looked at the person he was talking to, for once, to show that he was serious about the situation.

"Eehhh, why the hell not? Go ahead," and all of Kakashi's seriousness just blew over Zaraki's head.

"Your Chakra, can you tell me why it felt so ... Demonic?" Kakashi asked, saying the last word as if it left a sour taste in his mouth. Which, truthfully, it did.

"I dunno for sure, but I got a theory," Zaraki stopped at this point to send a warning look towards their guests. "Are you guys sure you wanna hear this? This might be a little disturbing."

"I don't get what you mean, but we had more than our fair share of disturbing things in life. Go ahead and tell, we are curious too," Zabuza answered for himself and Haku, who was currently sitting next to Zabuza and looking very frail and pale.

"Alright. You guys know Chakra theory, right? How a person's Chakra Nature and potency is formed by what they eat and the kind of air they breath when they are really young?" Every ninja in the room nodded slowly. Kakashi thought he knew where this was going, but he didn't interrupt. "Well, my Chakra took on a Demonic tint because of what I ate when I was young. Apparently, since Demons get their tainted and potent Chakra from eating humans, I got the same kind of Chakra."

If anyone was surprised or nauseous, which more than a few were, they did well not to show it on their faces.

"Alright, that clears up one thing, I guess." Kakashi said. "Alright, next on the agenda is how you were able to kill so easily."

"Meh, killing never felt weird to me. I always killed to survive, so it became second nature to me. I even came to enjoy killing people." Zaraki replied.

"Did you ever hear that enjoying the kill is a sure sign of loss of sanity?" Kakashi asked, remembering his days in ANBU and how he had that same line drilled into his head. In a sense, it was true. No sane human enjoyed the death of another of his own species.

"Sanity? I never had any of that useless shit to start with."

"Okay." Kakashi drawled, trying to deal with the fact that one of his students was an emo and another was most likely insane. "So, next order of business, do you guys want to compete in the Chunin Exams?"

"Kakashi, don't be stupid. They are nowhere near the level required in the Chunin Exams," Naruto blurted out. Seriously, did the man want his team to get killed?

"Of course we are strong enough." Sasuke answered.

"Sure, if Sasuke-kun is here, we can do anything." Was Sakura's intelligent reply.

"Why the hell not? I'm up for anything as long as I get a good fight out of it." Zaraki answered characteristically. The guy really would do anything for an exciting fight. He didn't even have any regard for his own life when it came down to getting a good fight out of someone!

"I see, I will consider entering you guys and train you accordingly,"

"You really are trying to get your team killed, aren't you?" Naruto asked sarcastically, not expecting an answer.

"No, they won't be killed so easily." Kakashi said.

"Well, whatever. None of my business what you do with your squad. I'm done eating, so I will be seeing you later." Naruto walked away from the table and headed upstairs to his temporary room in the humble abode.

The first thing he saw when he entered the room was a scroll, lying harmlessly on his pillow. Moving towards it, he picked it up gingerly, ready to throw it if it was rigged in any way.

"_To Naruto Uzumaki, From a Friend._" It said on the front. Judging the scroll to be safe, Naruto opened it slowly but eagerly.

"_**The Rinnegan is a Dojutsu that is far superior to both the Byakugan and any form of the Sharingan, even the Eternal Mangekyo. It is the Dojutsu of the Rikudo Sennin and is only seen very, very rarely in the members of the Uzumaki family. The reasons, I know of, but deem you currently too young to know of or care about.**_

_**The Rinnegan has similar properties to the Byakugan and the Sharingan. Though the eyesight isn't as good as the Byakugan, the user has the ability to see what any Summoned creature or any Clone can see, so it has the potential to have a better range of view than the Byakugan.**_

_**Unlike the Sharingan, the Rinnegan does not have the ability to instantaneously copy any Ninjutsu, but it does make it easier for the user to learn any Jutsu, and it gives them the ability to manipulate any of the 5 major elements and maybe even combine them at a later point.**_

_**There are 6 unique capabilities of the Rinnegan, with a possible 7th. I will tell you of one of those abilities in this scroll, and will send you scrolls with abilities of the Rinnegan when I think you need to learn another Path.**_

_**The first, and easiest Path to master is the Deva Path. It will allow you to control attractive forces and repulsive forces. There are three Jutsu that you can use with this Path, but right now, I will only teach you two of these. The third is a little dangerous to be using with your Chakra levels.**_"

The scroll went on and on for a long time, describing two Jutsu called **Shinra Tensei** and **Bansho Ten'in**. It described how to use the Jutsu, how much Chakra it would take, the repercussions if he used it too much. It also said that Shinra Tensei could potentially destroy an entire village if used with enough Chakra, but it would take a long time for it to regenerate.

The only downside to these two Jutsu were that there was a buffer time that varied with the strength of the Jutsu, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The scroll was Naruto's first insight into just how inhumanely powerful his eyes were, exactly _why_ they called the Rinnegan the eyes of God. If he could control gravity with just the first and easiest Path, who knew what he could do with the rest of them. For all he knew, he might even be given complete control over life and death!

While Naruto was reading the scroll and was in deep thought, Sasuke had come up behind him, having finished up his own dinner ahead of all the others bar Naruto. Seeing the other boy reading a scroll intently, a scroll that looked akin to mail, Sasuke grew curious.

"What's the scroll about, Dobe?" Sasuke asked in the friendliest voice he could managed, surprising himself with just how friendly he could sound if he wanted to.

"Still calling me a Dobe?" Naruto asked in return, not answering the question he was asked.

"It's more of a joke and a habit nowadays, you know full well I don't mean it. I actually have the urge to stop brooding for some reason, but I have an appearance to keep up!" Sasuke replied, somewhat heatedly. Honestly, he was speaking a lot more than he normally did, but being around the cheerful blond did that to people. Well, he managed to change most people, Kakashi was still lazy and Sakura was a total fangirl.

"Yeah, yeah. I don't know who this is from, but it's a scroll that explains more about my Bloodline. Since I am one of the very few people in the ninja history that has awoken this Bloodline, I honestly have no idea what I can do with it," Naruto answered honestly. "That reminds me, since when do you talk to Dobe's like me?"

Sasuke looked at Naruto like he was still the Dobe. "Itachi might have screwed with my head, but I am not stupid enough to overlook the obvious. Sure, I brooded in class back at the Academy, but that was more because I didn't really have any competition. As for why I am talking to you, I can see you really aren't an idiot, but a decent ninja that is probably stronger than me. And if what you said was true, then you had a much more screwed up life than I did, so I don't see any reason for me to doom and gloom while you are all cheerful."

To say Naruto was surprised would be the greatest understatement of the century, probably millennium. For a full minute, even with his new found intelligence, Naruto gaped at Sasuke like a fish, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. "What's wrong Dobe, cat got your tongue?"

"Damn, who knew all it took was a watered down story of my life and a show of strength to pull that massive stick out of your ass?" Naruto asked sarcastically, trying to get a rise out of Sasuke. Which, if he knew the other boy as well as he thought he did, Naruto was sure he was going to get.

"HEY! I did not have a stick up my ass! Wait, what did you mean watered down? I thought you were exaggerating when you were giving your life story?" Sasuke suddenly looked very scared. There was also an underlying tone of, was that pity in Sasuke's voice?

"Yeah, that was watered down. I had worse, but I can't be bothered to dig up all those old memories. The worst of them were mostly from when I was younger. And don't you dare pity me, teme, or I will kick your ass into next bloody year. Remember one thing and it will help you in life more than anything else. Well, it did wonders for me, anyway. Never wallow in your sorrows, remember that no matter how bad your life is, there is probably someone out there that has had a far worse life than you had." Naruto sounded much older than a boy of 11, something close to a Sage.

"Worse? Kami help any poor soul that had a life worse than you."

"Well, yeah. That's true. And another thing, I am pretty sure this is gonna get hammered out later when you meet your brother, anyway, but let go of all of your hatred-" before Naruto could go any further, Sasuke interrupted him, sounding almost like his old self.

"What do you mean let go of hatred? Hatred is what gives people power, I need power to kill Itachi!"

"Idiot, let me finish. Hatred isn't the only thing that gives you power, you moron. And while I support your will to get stronger, you don't need to kill Itachi-nii-" again, he was interrupted by Sasuke.

"Itachi-_nii_? I didn't hear you call him that last time." Sasuke sounded very much like his old, brooding self. His tone held that same anger that his avenger persona always did. For a minute, Naruto feared that all his efforts to pull Sasuke out of the darkness had failed.

"Dammit, Sasuke, if you let me finish, you would understand what the hell I am saying. I call him nii because he has been like a brother to me for these past year or so," Sasuke looked skeptical at that. "Anyway, don't worry about my relationship to Itachi-nii for now, that can be sorted later. We are getting off topic.

"Itachi-nii going mad and testing his skills out wasn't the reason that the Uchiha were killed, that was only a front. That's why you don't need to kill him. The rest of the story is for Itachi-nii to tell. As for hatred giving you power, that is actually a ruse. It isn't hatred that gives someone power, but strong emotions like hatred. It causes a person to become determined for their purpose, and gain power to fulfill that purpose. The strong emotion causes a massive rise in determination, which is the thing that makes people stronger, it's the will to fulfill that purpose. The strong determination causes people to go beyond their limits, to rise to their true limits.

"That's the philosophy behind the Will of Fire that Konoha is so famous for, or infamous, depending on you point of view. The will to protect what is precious to them is what makes the Hidden Leaf so strong and so damn fearsome in a war." Naruto finished his long lecture with a sigh.

"I guess that makes sense. So, how do I gain power of a strong emotion without hatred?" Sasuke asked, as if it was the most complicated thing he had ever come up against.

"It's simple idiot. Make friends, find people you care about. That way, when you come to care about them, you would even give up your life to protect them. That is what makes people strong." Naruto answered, then got a mischievous look on his face. If any victim of his pranks had seen that face at the time, they would surely have had a heart attack. However, Sasuke, being exempt from the list of prank victims, just looked at Naruto expectantly. "Tell you what, go get a girlfriend. That tends to make people want to protect."

Sasuke, being the somewhat innocent 11 year old he was, blushed madly. Seeing Sasuke go the exact shade of tomato red that Hinata's face went everytime Naruto got close to her, Naruto broke out in uncontrollable fits of laughter.

"Shut up, Dobe! Go get a girlfriend of your own! At least girls look my way when I walk past," without realising his mistake, Sasuke just opened himself up to the prankster often called the King of Chaos.

"Sure, I will get a girlfriend when I get a little older. I have a girl in mind, but not until later," seeing the window of opportunity, Naruto's prankster instincts kicked into high gear. "Girls turn your way when you walk past, eh? What kind of girls? They don't happen to be those loud, clingy fangirls of yours, do they?"

Sasuke went from cherry red to deathly pale faster than Minato moved with his **Flying Thunder God**** Jutsu **and promptly fell to the ground, the overload of memories of loud and clingy fangirls straining his damaged mind too much for him to stay awake. Seeing the prone figure of a pale Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto's raucous laughter got even louder as he fell to the floor clutching his sides.

**A/R: Forget what I said about Wave Arc ending this chapter. Wave arc will end next chapter and the next arc WILL begin right away.**

**Anyhow guys, please review. It only takes 20 seconds to review with this new system and even an anonymous review saying Good Job helps raise my spirits.**


	18. A New Journey

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Wow, I have no idea what happened, but in two and a bit days, chapter 17 had the most reviews of any of my chapters with a whopping 28 reviews. I must admit, I was kinda scared to see a total of over 30 reviews after the last update.**

**Zaraki poll is still up, still reminding you guys and telling you to vote.**

**Plot wise, this is the chapter where we move onto the next arc of the story and I hit a very minor writers block about how I want this arc to play out and how I want it to affect the story, but I will figure something out.**

**The concept of the Roku Kyoshu is from another story. If anyone knows where it comes from, please let me know and I will credit whoever created this. I am borrowing this from a story I read, who in turn had borrowed it from a story they read. I forgot which story it was that I got it from, so if anyone knows, kindly remind me.**

**On with the story!**

With the bridge completed, Team 7's debriefing over and their possessions packed, the ninja decided Wave country was secured well enough for them to leave. They got up early in the morning, hoping for a quiet leave. Unfortunately for them, Tazuna had somehow heard of them leaving early at daybreak, and their leave was anything but quiet.

Kakashi, Zabuza, Haku, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Zaraki were standing at the mouth of the yet unnamed bridge, trying to sneak past a massive crowd to try and return to Konoha. Unfortunately for them, it seemed like the entirety of Wave country had come over to get their chance at thanking and congratulating their heroes.

"We appreciate your gratitude, but we really should be going back to Konoha now. Our mission has taken far longer than any normal C Rank should have taken so we are kind of behind schedule," Kakashi said, looking like he was anything other than appreciative of the populace's gratitude.

"I see. Well then, you guys best be on your way. I will go over to Konoha myself to set up the payment we agreed. As much as I would love to, I won't back out of our deal after all that you have done for us," Tazuna said.

After a long, long while the shinobi were finally left alone long enough for them to sneak away. Even then, Naruto was under the impression that they only got away because Tazuna distracted them long enough for them to ungracefully run past.

"Jeesh, that took way longer than it should have," Naruto complained. He was rather tired of the near celebrity status that they gained. As much as he wanted to say otherwise, he preferred the near anonymity in Konoha over the lime light on such a scale. He never wanted to be in Sasuke's position.

"Well, at least now you know how it feels like to have fangirls," Sasuke piped from his right, eliciting a shiver from him. Honestly, fangirls were probably another species altogether and nobody that had them, wanted them.

"I don't envy you. That was the single most terrifying thing I saw in my life," Naruto said, still hugging himself while he walked. They had decided to walk at a leisurely pace rather than run back, they wanted to be in training condition right after they returned.

"I don't get what's so scary about them. They are some girls that throw themselves at your feet," Zaraki said, standing to Naruto's left. The three boys were walking a little behind everyone, hanging back to talk amongst themselves.

"That's because they avoided you like the plague. Something about you looking like a scary monster. Honestly, their reaction over your appearance was pretty funny."

"Yeah, yeah. I still don't get why both of you are terrified of them. You could obviously snap them in half whenever you wanted to, so why so scared?" Zaraki asked, not understanding the terror that was known as fangirls.

"You will never understand the horror," Sasuke said, now also hugging himself and shivering like Naruto.

"Speaking of which, why are you not fainting at the mere notion of fangirls? And why the hell is Sakura not throwing herself at you?" At the mention of Sakura's name, Sasuke's shivering got more violent.

"I don't know. After our talk yesterday, my crippling fear of 'those' have lessened a bit," Sasuke said.

At that moment, the stretch of road that they were about to walk through slowly became blanketed in a thick mist. It wasn't as big as Zabuza's **Hidden Mist Jutsu** but it was large enough to block their view of what was ahead.

-TT-

After the entourage of ninja had left, the civilians of Wave country stood around debating what the name of their new bridge should have been. Many suggestions were fired off, but none of them sounded just right.

"I know what we should call it. Since I built it, lets call it the Great Super Duper Tazuna Bridge!" Tazuna said happily. Everyone, including his own family, looked at him like he was crazy.

"Just what the hell are you on about you stupid old man?" Some civilian shouted from the back of the crowd. Similar angry shouts followed. It was more than obvious that nobody shared his sentiments about the name of the bridge.

"Since it was Naruto that killed Gato, why not call it the Great Naruto Bridge?" Inari asked timidly.

"Sure, as long as we call it the Great Super Naruto Bridge!"

"**HELL NO!**" Came the collective shout of the entire crowd.

-TT-

"Hokage-sama sent me to give this message to you and accompany to your next mission," came a voice from the thick mist in front of the group.

Naruto couldn't put his finger on it, but for some reason the voice sounded really familiar to him, even though it was ringing from all around him. It sounded like something he heard everyday, shouting at him in the morning to get up. Then it clicked.

"GOD DAMMIT KISAME! STOP USING THAT RETARDED **SHUNSHIN** OF YOURS!" Dark chuckling came from the mist in front of them, before the tall frame of Kisame emerged from the mist. He was wearing the normal Jounin outfit for Konoha, but his sleeves were missing.

"Oh, Zabuza, you still after guys of your own gender?" Kisame asked, seeing his fellow Swordsman of the Mist for the first time in a long while.

"Kisame, nice try, but gay jokes don't work on me anymore," Zabuza replied, looking Kisame straight in the eye in defiance. If he was still the trainee he was while Kisame left, he would have blushed crimson in anger and lashed out at Kisame, only to be beat back down.

"I see," Kisame looked over to Haku. "It seems like not only are you gay, but you seem to be a paedophile too."

This time, Zabuza couldn't handle the jibe, and attacked his fellow swordsman in unadulterated rage.

-TT-

"Okay, now that the two of you are done trying to kill each other, what is the mission Kisame?" Naruto asked, standing between the two old rivals. It was irritating to watch two grown men running at each other just because of some weird jokes.

"We are going to the old ruins of Uzushiogakure, where a client asked us to retrieve some scrolls from a building. Team 8 was sent, but they are having troubles getting through the guard. So yeah, we are getting sent as reinforcement." Kisame explained. Naruto knew perfectly well that he was going to be visiting the ruins of his Clan's village, but he didn't vocalise any complaints.

"So, what does this have to do with Team 7 and me?" Kakashi asked, trying to get out of doing more work than he already had to.

"Team 7 is being sent along with my Team, so yeah. You guys got this mission as well." Kisame said.

"So, what do we do? Do we head straight to Konoha, or do we come with you?" Zabuza asked. He really didn't want to do more travelling after being a missing nin for so long. He was looking forward to finally settling down in a village.

"It's best if you come with us. Who knows what kind of crap the Council will pull if you go there without me around," Naruto said.

"What does you going there have to do with us getting a place in the village?" Haku asked, curious.

"Don't ask. The Council makes laws that they don't obey, and the Hokage forgot most of them himself, so I will be going with you to bail you out when I need to." Naruto said.

"I see, well, we will head to Uzushio with you I guess," Zabuza said, preparing to change course to head towards another village.

-TT-

The journey to Whirlpool country took a couple days, but was mostly uneventful. They were about a mile out from where they were supposed to meet with Team 8 when Naruto decided to strike up a conversation with Kisame.

"Oi, Kisame. If we go on a mission now that may take more than a few weeks to do, what would we do about the Chunin Exams? I thought they were starting in a couple of weeks?" Naruto said, looking expectantly over his shoulder at Kisame, while they were tree hopping closer to their meeting place.

"Oh, you don't have to worry. There was something about getting a treaty with Kumo so that their ninja could participate as well, so the Exams are getting delayed. It's probably going to take a couple more months of negotiation before the Exams are ready to go," Kisame said, not looking over to his student and just carrying on in his journey.

"That makes life easier. Now I can actually train properly to get ready for the Exams. I got some stuff I want to try out," he said. He would say more, but that was when they ran into the clearing that Team 8 were waiting for them in.

"Where is the client? I want to get this mission over with as fast as possible," Kakashi said, as soon as he neared Kurenai. He wasn't in the mood to do another extended mission after just completing a mission that took so long.

"The client is in a tent a bit further South. The problem is our opposition, I don't think my team had a hope of taking him down," Kurenai said.

"Well, lead the way," Naruto said, sharing Kakashi's sentiment in wanting to get the mission over with as fast as possible.

The entire group, composed of Team 7, Team 8, Kisame, Naruto, Zabuza and Haku, walked towards where the tent was supposed to be. What they found was less like a tent and more like a mansion made of fabric.

A portly, bald man walked out of the 'tent' wearing what looked to be his silk pyjamas. He walked slowly up to the group of ninja to find out who the new group were.

"Kurenai-san, who are these new people?" The man asked, playing with an imaginary beard as he did so. He seemed like one of those stereotypical rich men that didn't ever see hardship in their lives.

"Tsubasa-san, these are reinforcements. We can't force our way through the gates without more troops," Kurenai said.

"Speaking of fighting, who are we fighting?" Naruto asked. He didn't know why, but his gut was telling him that there was something seriously wrong with this mission. His instincts were telling him to run the hell away and hide in a hole far, far away from where they were right now. His gut instincts were never wrong, so he prayed it was wrong for once.

"Some middle aged man with a sword. The odd thing is, by his Chakra levels, he seems like a civilian." Kurenai replied, scrunching her face a little in confusion. It really made no sense. It was common knowledge that Chakra was power in the world, so how was a Chakra-less man like that so damn powerful?

"Well, whatever. Let's get the client to the destination so he can point out what scrolls he wants." Naruto said. He was doing what he always did best, deceiving people. He was doing a good job, but Kisame knew something was wrong about his student's tone of voice.

The group walked at a leisurely pace, walking towards what was probably the ruins of the old Uzushiogakure. Nobody talked much on the way. The Gennin tried to make small talk among themselves, but they quickly found out that nobody really got along that well, what with Kiba and Sasuke clashing over the 'alpha male' position as Kiba put it.

Naruto moved away from the shouting Inuzuka and the brooding Uchiha, preferring to walk next to the quiet Shino and Hinata. Shino, knowing about Hinata's crush, moved discretely away from the pair of them.

Seeing Naruto so close and the fact that they were now relatively alone, Hinata started to get nervous. Naruto, as observant as he was, noticed this immediately. He knew of her crush on him, and he frankly didn't know what to make of it. On one hand, Hinata was a nice, kind-hearted girl that didn't have a shred of Hyuga arrogance in her, but on the other hand, her father was rather insistent of boys staying _away_ from his daughter, not wanting to taint the Hyuga name, no matter how weak and worthless he thought his daughter to be.

"Ne, Hinata, why are you always so nervous around me?" Naruto asked quietly, not wanting the sensitive ears of the Jounin to pick up on their conversation. Not that they were eavesdropping, and it was rather hard to hear things when there was such a gap between the group and the pair.

"It's be-because I h-have a c-c-c-c-rush on y-y-ou, remember?" Hinata said, her stuttering getting steadily worse as her nervousness increased.

"I know you have a crush on me, and I am not going to give you an answer to your confession just yet, but why the nervousness? I know you don't have much confidence, but why the sudden increase?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious. Hinata was getting way more nervous than she usually did, so Naruto instantly became suspicious of the reason.

"It's be-because I ha-have to be-become a C-c-c-c-hu-nin this c-coming ex-xams." Hinata said quietly.

"So what? Jeez, have some more confidence in yourself. You are a lot stronger than you think, just lose the nervousness and a bit of the softness, and I am sure you will be knocking Hanabi and Neji around like ragdolls," Naruto said confidently. The pair had to stop talking though, because the group had stopped in front of a large building that looked to be surrounded by miles of barren land.

"So this is the destination?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, this is the library of Uzushiogakure. What I want you to retrieve are Jutsu Scrolls. I am a collector, so I want to collect these invaluable Jutsu," The client said.

Before the conversation could go any further, a man walked towards them.

"So you are back and attempting to steal from my old master's vault," The man said, addressing Kurenai.

The man looked to be about Kakashi's age, with sandy blonde hair that fell down to his back. He had a white coat that was draped over his shoulders, fluttering in the wind. He wore a full sleeve white tee, with the word OSAMURAI imprinted on the right breast and a dull blue coloured jeans that looked old and faded. The look was completed with a white leather belt tied around his waist and the ends hung limply down his front.

(**A/N: Google search Mifune Soul Eater Modern Look and the fourth picture in the top row is what he looks like.)**

****"We are only here to complete a mission. Let us past," Kurenai said.

"Even if you are here for a mission, I cannot allow you to take what is in this vault." The man said evenly. "Besides, there is a blood seal in place that prevents anyone not worthy from going inside."

"I see," Naruto said, talking before Kurenai could. He turned towards the client. "Be honest, what are your intentions for the scrolls after you get them?"

"To sell them to Kumogakure no Sato," the man replied honestly.

"I see," Naruto stood in a ready stance in front of their client. "In that case, I cannot allow you to lay your hands on the scrolls within this vault."

**A/R: Cut. That is a decent sized chapter.**

**I don't know why, but the chapter felt really awkward to me, anyone else get that feeling?**

**Anyhow, please leave a review. A single anonymous review saying Good job lifts my spirits and takes less than 30 seconds, so please don't hesitate to leave a review.**


	19. Mifune of the Infinite Swords

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Holy lord, so many reviews. I am really scared now. Sixty five reviews on only the last two chapters, that is ridiculous by my standards. Ridiculously good, not bad.**

**Zaraki poll still up, go votesy.**

**I really don't know what to say, other than the fact that I have really been busy with school work recently. Today is Friday and I am just starting the chapter. I normally start on Saturday or Sunday, right after uploading the last chapter, but I had way too much work to do. So if this is later than the normal weekend upload, please forgive me.**

**On with the story!**

Instantly, as soon as the words were out of his mouth, the Konoha ninja, bar Naruto and Kisame, rushed to the side of the client and surrounded him, protecting him from the 'threat'. Naruto stood with his back to the man guarding the vault, completely overlooking the fact that he was leaving his back open to attack. He didn't consider the guard an enemy anymore.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Kakashi asked in a somewhat serious voice, showing that he was actually awake for once. He was rarely attentive, let alone serious, on a mission, anymore.

"I am preventing the client, Tsubasa-san, from getting what he wants," Naruto stated simply. He then turned towards Kisame. "Kisame, do you have Ryujinjakka?"

"If it's in the storage scroll, then yeah. I brought the scroll with your custom ration bars in it," Kisame said, holding out a small scroll towards Naruto. It was a deep red scroll, with a white label that had the Kanji for 'Personal' on it.

"It has more than ration bars," Naruto said, never taking his eye off the client and the ring of shinobi surrounding him. He bit his thumb, and wiped his finger over the label rather than the seals inside. Out came a slightly longer than normal katana, the kanji disappearing from the white label.

"Naruto, just so you know, you will be taken down for treason if you attack," Kurenai warned, taking out a kunai to prove her point. Kunai's were often used as a symbol of warning in the shinobi world.

"I see," Naruto said, still not moving from his spot in front of the middle aged man charge with guarding the vault. The man himself looked on without an expression on his face, not saying anything. He wanted to see how the situation with the ninjas would go. "I don't mind being attacked, but fighting eight on one might be rather problematic."

"Jeesh, it's eight on three, not one. I get why you are against Kumo getting the scrolls in here, so I might as well fight with you. And I am pretty sure that samurai over there doesn't mind helping someone trying to defend the scrolls," Kisame said lazily. He was looking on as if the prospect of fighting the eight people in front of him bored him.

"Naruto, why are you betraying the village like this? Trying to get in the way of a mission is the worst crime anyone can commit, other than maybe murder of a comrade," Kakashi said lowly, he was looking disappointedly at Naruto.

"Because what I am doing isn't treason," he replied ominously. "Some of Konoha's most dangerous secret techniques were given to Uzushiogakure, in return for their help with putting safety seals on the outer walls of Konohagure no Sato. And the sealing scrolls of Uzushio are nothing to laugh at, Kumo getting their hands on these scrolls would tip the balance of power in their favour."

"Bullshit, there isn't anything in our history books about any treaties with any Uzushiogakure. Heck, no one even told us such a village existed," Kiba growled. He had stayed quiet throughout the entire thing, but was now starting to get annoyed. Where did the Dobe get off saying he was doing the village a favour by committing treason?

"Yes, because Konohagakure most likely erased all of their books, tomes and scrolls on any history they had on Uzushiogakure," the man guarding the vault said, speaking up after a long while. He hadn't spoken since Naruto had made his proclamation about protecting the scrolls.

"Why would they do such a thing?" Sakura asked, and for once, it was a legitimately intelligent question. If Uzu and Konoha were allied closely enough to be sharing secret, and perhaps forbidden, techniques then why would Konoha erase all documents of Uzu's existence?

"It is not my place to say. For all I know, my assumptions are incorrect," the man said. Sakura was going to ask something more, but she was interrupted by Naruto talking.

"Who are you? You don't look like anyone from the ruling clan of Uzu," Naruto was trying his best not to say the name Uzumaki out loud. He knew for a fact that he was going to get a reaction out of the strange, white haired man. That would not be a good thing, as he didn't want to reveal that he was the last of not one, but two clans. Two very prestigious and powerful clans.

"My name is Mifune, I was a samurai retainer that was charged with the responsibility of guarding the vault," the white haired man, now identified as Mifune, said. Nobody had a reaction to his, except for Naruto. They all assumed that the man was just a normal samurai, someone they could get through easily. After all, it was a widely known fact that samurai were weaker than shinobi.

"You have to be shitting me," Naruto exclaimed, surprising everyone there.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Kakashi asked, rather curious of why Naruto had such an outburst.

"Seems like I didn't need to go through the trouble of defending the vault," Naruto said, palming his face gently. "You would need an army to storm this place to get anywere close to that vault, unless that man wanted to let you in." The rest present, other than Mifune, were rather confused at the declaration.

"Why would we need an army to get past a man with no Chakra?" Kurenai asked dubiously.

"Because, this man is Mifune of the Infinite Sword. One of the Roku Kyoshu, the master of Kenjutsu to be exact." The ninja still didn't have any reaction, other than Kakashi, who looked decidedly scared out of his wits. Kurenai, noticing her fellow Jounin's condition, addressed him.

"What's wrong Kakashi?" Kurenai asked, concerned. She had never seen Kakashi Hatake that scared, it was a foreign experience to see someone of Kakashi's level that frightened.

"One of the Roku Kyoshu. Impossible, this is a suicide mission, not a C-Rank," Kakashi mumbled to himself, not acknowledging Kurenai. Kurenai walked up to Kakashi and shook him by the shoulders, snapping him out of his reverie.

"What's wrong Kakashi?" Kurenai repeated, now that Kakashi was somewhat himself again.

"If he is one of the Roku Kyoshu, then we do need an entire army to storm this place, if we are ever going to get the scrolls." Kurenai just looked dumbly at him, prompting him to explain. "The Roku Kyoshu are the Six Great Masters, said to have completely mastered their skill. They are the strongest in the world, said to be the equivalent of three S Rank ninja. It would be like fighting the Sannin, added onto each other and made into the same person."

At that statement, the gravity of the situation sunk in. Finally, they realised that despite his frail appearance and apparent lack of Chakra, this was possibly one of the strongest men to have ever existed. The Jounin in the area looked frightened and flustered, the client looked surprisingly calm and the Gennin, except for Naruto, just looked on, doubting the strength of the man in front of them.

"Wait a second," Naruto said, gaining everyone's attention. Something didn't add up, the Roku Kyoshu were meant to be without any master, the wanderers of the world that never interfered. So what was it that compelled the master of Kenjutsu to stand guard in this vault? "Why are you working as a retainer for a dead clan?"

"What do you mean? Is there anything wrong with a samurai being a retainer?" Mifune asked, cocking his head to the side and managing to look rather confused. Like this, the powerful man almost looked to be a puzzled puppy.

"Yes there is. I know a lot more about the Roku Ryoshu than the average ninja," the others looked at him funnily. "I study, okay?" Again, he was looked at oddly. Naruto Uzumaki, studying? Blasphemy! "Whatever, that isn't the point. From what I read, the Roku Kyoshu are wanderers and have no affiliations. They are talented in their arts, but they weren't even born in any shinobi village, so tell me, why is it that you are loyal to Uzu?"

"What you read, is a lie," everyone looked surprised at that. Even though the ninja world was built on pure deception, it was rather rare to have it thrown in the face like that. "The Roku Kyoshu were exclusively loyal to Uzushiogakure, their birth place. They weren't wanderers, but explorers that were ordered to explore and map the world for the knowledge thirsty people of Uzu."

"I see, that is a rather big insight into one of the most powerful clans to ever exist," Naruto said, sounding almost like a sage again. Unbeknownst to all present, bar Kisame, Naruto was rather an avid reader. His father was Namikaze Minato, a genius in the arts of Fuinjutsu. There was no practitioner of Fuinjutsu that didn't study, the arts themselves were based around theory. His mother was an Uzumaki. A monumental, insatiable thirst for knowledge being born was inevitable.

"Most powerful clans to ever exist? How powerful were they?" Sasuke was starting to recover from his arrogant ways, but he still held the power of the Uchiha in high regard.

"The ruling clan in Uzushiogakure, the Senju, the Uchiha and the Namikaze made up the four most powerful clans in ancient times. Uzu's Fuinjutsu, the Senju's Mokuton, the Uchiha's Sharingan and the Namikaze's Jikukan. These made up the signature Jutsu of the most powerful clans in the world." Naruto explained. "So in relation to the Uchiha, they were as powerful, if not more powerful than the Uchiha."

"You keep saying the ruling clan in Uzu, or they, you never say the clan by their name. What were they called?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"Well, you aren't going to believe me," Naruto said cryptically in return. His reply was accompanied by a dry, mirthless laugh.

"Try me," Sasuke said.

"Well, would you believe me if I said I was the last member and heir of a clan that was once as powerful, if not more, than yours?" Naruto asked.

"Erm ... maybe?" Sasuke returned, doubt colouring his voice.

"Well, I am. The Uzumaki clan were once the rulers of Uzushiogakure, it was run through a monarchy system. The Uzukage's were selected from the members of the Uzumaki clan."

All of them, including Kisame this time, had rather mild reactions, complete opposite of what he was expecting. They just looked at him like he was lying, which wasn't that big of a surprise.

"That is indeed true, though I am unsure of whether your claim of being the last of the Uzumaki is true," Mifune said, stroking his chin in a thoughtful manner. "You seem to be lacking the telltale shade of red hair that marks an Uzumaki."

"I have my father's hair and my mother's facial features," Naruto replied.

"Ah, I can see the resemblance," Mifune said, as if he just had an epiphany. "Kushi?"

"Yeah."

"Anyhow, we are getting ridiculously off track," Naruto said, almost in a dismissive manner. He didn't want to talk about dead clans that no longer existed, and certainly did not want to get branded as a liar because of one such clan. "Okay, where were we? Ah yes, the scrolls. Well, since we now know that there is no reason for us to protect the vault, and there is no reason for us to take the scrolls, shall we head back?"

"I guess we should, but what do we do with the client? There isn't a guarantee that he isn't a plant from Kumo," Kakashi said, his experience telling him to trust nothing and try to find every hidden detail in the world within the shortest amount of time possible.

"No, there is," Naruto said, surprising everyone. They looked at him expectantly, silently asking him to explain. "He fully admitted his intentions to us. There was no hint of hesitation or deception. so he was telling the truth."

"How does that prove that he isn't someone sent by Kumo?" Kurenai asked in a very clipped and annoyed tone. She wasn't liking the fact that she was, in her opinion, being showed up by a Gennin. The fact that Naruto was a boy didn't help either. It was a well known fact that Kurenai despised the male species.

"Simple. If he was a plant, he wouldn't have told us that he planned to sell them to Kumo. The man probably just thought that he could make some decent money off of the scrolls by selling it to them. Kumo does have a reputation to pay large sums of money for strong techniques." Naruto explained patiently, completely ignoring the tone Kurenai just used to address him.

"Still, we should detain him and take him to the Hokage, let him decide what to do," Kakashi said. He could see that Kurenai was about to question Naruto's logic, in which he found no flaws, so he decided to intervene and nip the problem in the bud.

"Agreed," Naruto said. The Gennin - other than Naruto, Sasuke and Kiba to an extent - were almost silent throughout the entire ordeal, watching their superiors in knowledge deal with the situation. "If that is all, shall we head back to Konoha?"

"Let's go," Kisame said, nodding towards the general direction of where Konoha was.

"Wait, before you go," Mifune called. "If you really are who you say, you should take the scrolls inside the vault. You might find things that will help you in life."

Naruto seemed to be considering the pros and cons of doing such a thing. On one hand, he could gain some very powerful Jutsu, but on the other hand, the Council was going to demand the scrolls and techniques. Of course, they would probably teach it to any ninja they had under their thumb and literally shower Sasuke with the techniques.

Of course, Naruto had nothing against the Uchiha boy, not anymore. After he got past all the arrogance, Sasuke seemed like a nice kid. He was willing to learn, though he was rather dense at times. What Naruto was concerned about wasn't the fact that Sasuke would be getting Jutsu, but the fact that the Jutsu would most likely be dangerous and might even wind up killing him.

"Well, fine. I can handle the Council with their own laws, so I guess I will take the scrolls." Naruto said. His voice had a little undertone of ... nervousness? Naruto was never nervous.

"It's a blood seal, I'm sure you know how they work?" Mifune asked, more out of courtesy than anything else. Blood seals were common, and though they were hard to make, everyone knew about them.

"Yep," Naruto said, slit his thumb on the point of a kunai and moved towards the door of the vault with a bleeding thumb.

**A/R: Oh I am evil, two cliffies in two chapters. Sorry to those that were expecting a conflict or a long Arc. I really couldn't think anything up, so blame my lack of creativity if anything.**

**Sorry for the shortness, but you really should be used to it by now. I find it REALLY difficult to write long chapters, without taking a month or longer to write it, and making it flow well. If you are expecting regular long chapters, this story probably isn't for you.**

**The chapter ... flowed kind of better than the last one. For some reason, the awkwardness of the last chapter wasn't there in this one.**

**If anyone misses my rants, let me know. I have a couple of them planned, but I don't want to type them up if they anger/chase away readers.**


	20. Samsara: The Embodiment of the Rinnegan

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Really, don't know what to say. The number of reviews has somehow sky rocketed and I am scared. Yes I am.**

**Zaraki poll still up, go vote.**

**If you want to, you can give me suggestions for Jutsu. I have some things planned out for this little escapade, but nothing to over the top, I think. This is basically something to set up future events in the Chunin Exams.**

**On with the story!**

It had been a long, long time since Naruto Uzumaki was scared for his own life. The last time it had happened, he was being electrocuted with enough electricity to power all of the Hyuga and Uchiha districts without a problem, and probably have some left over. This time, though, the situation was much more serious.

As soon as he had trailed his bloodied finger over the blood seal on the vault's door, it started sucking out his chakra at an alarming rate and didn't show any sign of stopping any time soon. Currently, he was hanging in a state somewhere between Chakra exhaustion and death.

It kept sucking on his Chakra, not slowing for a time yet. Then, suddenly, it stopped. It was no longer drawing any Chakra from him, but Naruto still couldn't retract his finger from the door. It was as if some unnatural force was keeping his arm attached to the door.

Then he felt it. All of his Chakra returning to him, but something was amiss. It didn't feel like his Chakra anymore. In fact, it didn't feel like Chakra at all. It was as if pure knowledge was being pumped into his veins, and it _hurt_.

Liquid fire was boiling through his veins, accompanied by knowledge. He knew why it was happening though. It was too much pain for his mind to take in one concentrated area, as that would cause his brain to explode. So it did the only thing it could do to ensure Naruto's survival, spread the pain over his entire body.

He held in his screams though, he was no stranger to pain. Even at this level of pain, he could handle it. He would take it, he wouldn't cry out. After all, he had promised himself that he wouldn't allow anyone the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

As it was there, it was gone. Naruto felt normal again. His Chakra was back, his veins felt as if the pain from a moment ago was a figment of imagination. All was normal again, but something didn't feel right.

He noticed it then, the amount of sheer knowledge in his head. Thousands of years worth of experiments, studying, Jutsu development, Sealing knowledge. It was as if all of that was just dumped into his head without any restraint. He could feel his mind reeling from such a thing, but it was relishing in the power.

He could remember how to do ancient Jutsu, long forgotten and abandoned. He remember sealing formulae that were long since considered taboo and far too difficult or dangerous to attempt. He remembered exactly how to draw them, exactly how to use them.

But the knowledge wasn't the only thing he received. He received the sorrow, the sufferings of his people long gone and lost. It seemed that all the experiences of the past shinobi of this village was now thrown into his head, with absolutely no consideration for what kind of information was being given to him.

The door stayed adamantly locked, it didn't open. The vault seemed lifeless now, though, and looked to be wearing away into sand. Slowly, but surely, the large building was disappearing.

"What was that about?" Kiba asked, confused. In fact, everyone was confused. They were expecting the door to open and give way to a hallway full of scrolls. What they got, however, was a Naruto that seemed to be barely holding in a scream.

"I forgot to tell you," Mifune said, with a somewhat sheepish smile on his face. He looked a bit uncomfortable, though it was hard to tell the emotions of the stoic swordsman. "The vault isn't full of scrolls. It dumps all of the information in the mind of the recipient-"

That was as far as Naruto heard, before he saw black and passed out. The mental strain from having so much knowledge dumped in his mind was too much for even him to take.

-TT-

Naruto awoke to a white ceiling, not much unlike a white ceiling he was used to seeing. Every time a village mob would beat him, he would end up here. In the hospital, lying in an uncomfortable old cot. But something didn't feel right. The bed wasn't scratchy or reeking of disinfectant, but soft and had a flowery aroma. The ceiling looked white, but almost like clouds rather than a wall.

It clicked into his mind then. He wasn't in a hospital, but he was sleeping on the floor somewhere. The ceiling wasn't a ceiling, but the cloud covered sky!

Naruto stood up hurriedly, expecting to see the horrible place people called a hospital, but was surprised to see that he was standing in a clearing of sorts. The grass covered ground was a vivid shade of yellow, the clouds covering the sky a spotless white. He could see the treeline of a forest in the distance, and a grey fortress built against a rocky mountain of a darker shade of grey, beyond the forest.

Naruto was confused, he was expecting to wake up in the distasteful place people called hospital, but he was surprised to find himself in an invigourating clearing rather than a drap room of white. He was thinking about where he could be, and not paying attention to his surroundings. He presumed he was alone.

"**Boy, stop spacing out!**" A voice called from behind him. He whirled around immediately, on guard due to his surprise. He was even more surprised to see a man of average height and build, wearing plain, non-descript, white clothes. He had an odd shade of hair that looked to be red and blue at the same time, and a blue left eye accompanied by a red right eye.

"Who are you? Where have you brought me?" Naruto said, hostility colouring his voice. He was starting to formulate a plan to escape if he so needed.

"**Calm down, I am not your enemy,**" now that he was paying full attention, Naruto noticed the man had an odd voice too. It was as if two people were speaking at once, one gentle and calm voice, while the other was low and gravelly. It was as if the two parts of his voice were trying to personify Order and Chaos. "**Besides, even I am not powerful enough to harm you here.**"

Naruto dropped his guard. Just a little, he still didn't trust the man fully. "I didn't ask whether you were hostile or not. I asked, who are you? And where are we?" Naruto was still being hostile, despite the fact that the man had told him he wasn't an enemy. Naruto didn't believe it for a second. Trusting people had almost cost him his life so many times that he had lost count.

"**I understand why you don't trust me. After all, you almost lost your life many times by readily trusting people,**" Naruto looked startled at that. This man somehow knew intimate details of his life that even the Sandaime didn't know. "_He's dangerous, whoever he is._" Naruto thought. "**I am the embodiment of your Rinnegan. You can call me ... Samsara. As for where we are, we are in your mind. Specifically, the portion in which I reside.**"

"There are more than one portion to my mindscape?" Naruto asked, all semblance of hostility forgotten at hearing that he was within his own mindscape. He knew that even an existence of Kurama's level couldn't hurt him here. He was the supreme power here, the omnipotent one.

"**Hahaha, trust me, I am a lot more powerful than young Kurama,**" again, Naruto looked surprised. He had grown up thinking that the Kyubi was as strong as anything got within the mortal plane. "**And yes, there are more than one parts to your mindscape. Four, to be exact. One is where I reside, one is the former prison of Kurama, one is where your soul resides and the last is where your sword's spirit, Ryujinjakka, lays dormant.**"

"There are things that are more powerful than Kurama? That's rather scary." Naruto had sat down on the lush floor by now, looking as if he was ready to have a long conversation.

"**Yes, a few things in fact. The shinobi in the ancient times were sometimes strong enough to make the Bijuu look like children, which they were at the time. The Bijuu are all originated from the Jyubi, which was as strong as all the Bijuu put together and multiplied by ten.**" Samsara said, also taking a seat on the floor.

"That is a scary concept," Naruto said, looking every bit as scared as a person could. He knew first hand how powerful a single Bijuu was by themselves, so the power of all of them combined and _then multiplied_... it sent shivers down his spine. "So tell me, what am I doing here?"

"**The mental overload from having so much knowledge dumped into your head was too much for you, so you retreated into your mindscape to deal with the ... pressure.**" Samsara crossed his legs and his arms, attempting to get into a more comfortable position.

"What kind of knowledge?" Naruto asked, rather curious about the content of things that was dumped into his head.

"**Most of it is trivial things like accurate recounting of history and such. There are around 3000 Jutsu that you now have knowledge of, and can master if you want to, but most of them are completely useless,**" at this, Naruto's face fell considerably. He was looking forward to mastering so many Jutsu, but disappointed at hearing that most of them weren't good enough to be called battle worthy. "**Well, but there are also really strong ones like Summoning: Impure World Resurrection and Summoning: Pure World Rebirth.**"

"They sound like the same, how are they different?" Naruto said, excited by the prospect of learning about more techniques. Though he was more mature than before, his thirst for new Jutsu was still the same.

"**In essence, they are the same. They both bring back the dead,**" at this, Naruto looked disgusted. "**But, where the Impure one brings back the dead via a living sacrifice, and uses the dead as a puppet, the Pure version brings back the dead and allows them to live normally, as if they never died. The Pure version needs the user to sacrifice some of their lifespan, though. A couple decades at the most, but the exact number wasn't confirmed.**"

"Who would research something so disgusting?" Naruto asked, though as an afterthought, he added: "Though the **Pure Rebirth** sounds like a really noble Jutsu to use."

"**Orochimaru, for one,**" Naruto wrinkled his nose. He had a few run ins with the Sannin in his younger days. He never liked the man. "**But the one that invented the first technique was actually the Nidaime Hokage.**"

"Tobirama Senju?" Samsara nodded. "Wow, never had him pegged for an insane scientist."

"**The second one was an invention of the Yondaime Hokage's, who was looking for a way to counter the Nidaime's technique in case he ran across someone that was putting a poor soul through such torture.**" Samsara looked thoughtful for a second, scratching his chin and looking towards the sky. "**Your father was a good man, really honest and almost obsessed with doing good deeds. But he was hellishly shrewd, though.**"

"Tell me, how do you know so much about the world when you are supposed to be the embodiment of my Rinnegan?"

"**It was a ... side effect from your sudden increase in knowledge and intellect. Mine increased in the same proportions as yours, so I am pretty much all knowing at this point. Though I won't interfere in ways that would change the future too much, I am still going to help you out wherever I can.**" Samsara smiled down at him, a fatherly look present in his mismatched eyes. "**I don't want you to die, after all.**"

"I see. What else do I know?"

"**Some elemental Jutsu that are long forgotten. They are really powerful, but hard to control. You don't have any need for them at this moment in time.**" Samsara contemplated for a while more. "**You might want to learn the 'Control of the Air Sphere' and 'Water Flowing Control of the Air Sphere'. Come to think of it, you don't have any offensive Jutsu, do you? You might want to learn 'Maelstrom Strike' and 'Lightning Style: Pale Lightning' while you're at it. Wind Style: Wind Blade' and 'Lightning Style: Lightning Blade' wouldn't hurt, but assassination techniques aren't necessary right now.**"

"I see. When can I leave and start practicing these Jutsu?" Naruto asked, excited by the prospect of learning new techniques. He really needed to expand his arsenal of offensive Jutsu, if not anything else.

"**In a couple of hours. Me and Kurama are still repairing your mind and sorting out the information into an usable archive. Go to sleep here and you will wake up in the real world when your mind has recuperated fully.**"

-TT-

Naruto awoke to the sound of battle and the unconscious face of Mifune. He stood up quickly not knowing what was going on. Looking around, he saw all of the Gennin passed out on the floor and the Jounin barely holding up against what looked to be hordes of Kumo Jounin.

"What the hell is going on here?" Naruto screamed.

**A/R: Apologies for the shorter chapter and the rushed ending, but I am not feeling that great.**

**I know there isn't a rant here this week, but next week, I promise there will be one, per popular request.**

**Please review. Even an anonymous review saying Good Job lifts me spirits!**

**Control of the Air Sphere and Water Flowing Control of the Air Sphere are Seikuken and Ryusui Seikuken, respectively, from the Manga/Anime History's Strongest Disciple: Kenichi. Pale Lightning is Byakurai from Bleach. Maelstrom strike is something I derived from Rasengan. Wind Blade is my version of Baki's Jutsu. Pure World Rebirth is my creation, and the other half of Edo Tensei. As for Lightning Blade, it's Kakashi's Jutsu. Or in my story, the ancient version of it.**


	21. The Dreaded Council of DOOOOOOM

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: I am glad you guys liked my Cliffhanger. It was rather funny to see some of the reactions :P.**

**The Zaraki poll is still up, go vote.**

**I really don't know what to say. Life is busy, updates are short and sparse, what can we do? It's life!**

**On with the story!**

_"The vault isn't full of scrolls. It dumps all of the information in the mind of the recipient without any heed for what kind of information is being shared or whether the vessel's mind is being overloaded. It is a dangerous method, but the Uzumaki life force is more than enough to counter act most of the damage done," Mifune explained. He would have explained the mechanics further, but he just felt a few hundred, rather strong presences approaching._

_"Be careful," Kakashi said, also noticing the hostile presences. It was rather hard for someone like him, a man that had lived through a war, to not notice so many people leaking so much killer intent. "There is too many of them for us. The Gennin, hang back. This is beyond your ability."_

_As if to illustrate that point, a Jounin, judging by appearance, with the badge of Kumogakure across his forehead stepped over the unconscious form of Naruto and proceeded to knock out all of the Gennin. The Jounin from Konoha watched in morbid curiousity, not moving since their students didn't have any mortal wounds inflicted upon them. It was safer for them to be passed out during all of this nonsense, anyway._

_"Well, to what do we owe the pleasure?" Kisame said, hoisting his large sword over his shoulder. He knew there was no way they were getting out of this without a conflict, but hoped that having a member of the Roku Kyoshu would even out the playing field a bit._

_"Give us the blonde boy, and we will be on our way. All we want are the secrets of the Uzumaki clan and that is all, there is no need for us to cause problems between our villages," the first Jounin warned. He looked to be the leader of the group, standing ahead of everyone else and holding up his head like he was important. "Besides, there is no way that the four of you can take on three hundred Jounin."_

_"I'm afraid we can't do that," came Kakashi's lazy drawl. He drew a kunai and lifted up his forehead protector, revealing his transplanted eye to the world. "The boy is too important to the village to be given over to the Land of Lightning."_

_Normally, Kakashi wouldn't be stupid enough to risk the life of three Jounin and several Gennin of the village over a single Gennin, but he knew Naruto was special. Not only did he say he possessed a Doujutsu, which he was willing to bet was true, but he was also the possessor of the Kyubi. Going by reputation alone, Kumo was the best place for Jinchuriki like Naruto, but that was because they were trained to control their beasts perfectly. Three perfectly controlled beasts, including the two strongest, in the same village would not be a good thing for world peace._

_"Oh drop it," Mifune said, drawing the sword he had slung over his back. It looked more like a very large nodachi than a Samurai's Katana. "There are only five people here that are even above Mid Jounin level. The rest of them are cannon fodder at best." He looked over to the Konoha shinobi. "You guys deal with the five elites, and let me worry about the crowd."_

_Hearing that, five figures detached themselves from the rest of the convoy. They looked to be over average build and average height, with non descript faces and wearing standard Jounin uniform for Kumogakure. However, judging from the aura they were exuding, they wouldn't be pushovers._

_"Alright then, let's get this party started," Mifune said, dropping his stoic persona and grinning like a madman. He crouched and, before any of the shinobi could even bat an eyelid, he was off like a bullet._

_At that moment in time, many of the Jounin nearly wet their pants. They felt, more than sensed, an immense Chakra signature just pop into their radar out of nowhere. Some of the more inexperienced members thought that one of the Tailed Beasts had somehow been unleashed in their midst, but further investigation proved that there wasn't any malice in the air. Just pure joy._

_Kakashi looked at the other fair haired man, and it confirmed his suspicions. Mifune didn't have the same amount of Chakra as a civilian ... he was just damn good at hiding that massive amount of Chakra._

_"**Addition,**" Mifune said, slicing through the Chakra constructs, resembling katanas, that he had made to trap one of the Jounin. He promptly exploded in a shower of blood and gore. Mifune moved onto his next prey, as if taking down elite shinobi in less than a heartbeat was a normal occurance for him._

_"Incredible... those are Jounin level shinobi, whether or not they have the experience some of us have. And that man is just slicing through them like he's slicing through butter," Kakashi said in awe. It had been a long, long time since he had seen someone massacre trained shinobi in such a manner. Not since his teacher, Minato Namikaze, slaughtered the Iwa army in the Third Great War had he seen a complete demolition of such level._

_"It's scary," Kurenai agreed with a nod. She was watching her opponent with a keen eye, but most of her attention was drawn to the man that was now surrounded by heaps of Jounin. "I definitely wouldn't go within a hundred miles of him if it was a war."_

_"We got you surrounded now, old man!" Apparently, someone had misjudged Mifune's age. He just looked at the shinobi around him, boring into them with his calculating gaze._

_"**Infinite Sword Wave,**" at the wave of a hand, a ring of swords appeared around Mifune at chest height. He sliced through their hilts, horizontally. The cut, though it went through the sword handles, made the katanas fly towards his enemies at high speeds. Twenty shinobi, dead in one move. That one move cost a lot of Chakra though._

_"That explains why he is called Mifune of the Infinite Swords," Kakashi said, shuddering at the display. Making swords out of thin air and Chakra alone was a scary ability._

_Twenty minutes later, the Kumo elites were still standing in front of the Konoha elites, but there was a difference this time. There was no back up for the Kumo Jounin. Two hundred and ninety five Jounin lay dead around them while a bloodied Mifune panted among them, still holding his nodachi in both hands. His blonde hair was matted, sweat poured from him, and he was panting like a dog, but he wore a satisfied smirk._

_"Well, that takes care of the small fry," Mifune said, taking a step towards the Konoha Jounin, but he fell face first next to the unconscious Naruto, falling into darkness himself. Apparently, even one of the Roku Kyoshu got tired after killing that many Jounin._

_The Konoha and Kumo Jounin took that as a signal to start fighting. Kurenai and Kakashi took on an opponent each, while Kisame ended up with three of them, including the leader._

_Their battle, however, was interrupted a while later, when they heard an incredulous shout echo through the air._

-TT-

Naruto awoke to the sound of battle and the unconscious face of Mifune. He stood up quickly not knowing what was going on. Looking around, he saw all of the Gennin passed out on the floor and the Jounin barely holding up against what looked to be hordes of Kumo Jounin.

"What the hell is going on here?" Naruto screamed.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the teachers were only taking on five ninja, not an entire horde. The majority of the ninja were on the floor, already dead from several sword wounds. They did, however, look rather tired and ... bored? What was boring about a nice fight against someone of your own ability?

"Seriously, what is going on here?" Naruto asked. He started walking towards Kisame who, despite fighting three times as many enemies as his fellow Konoha elites, looked to be the freshest of the lot. It truly was a testament as to why he was branded as an S Rank ninja.

"Long story short, we got ambushed by an army of Kumo Jounin, Mifune took care of the small fry then passed out from exhaustion." Kakashi explained, in his patented bored tone. No matter what happened, Kakashi always seemed bored. "Let us take care of this, then we will head back."

"What about Mifune?" Naruto asked, watching the teachers fight against the enemy shinobi.

"He can do whatever he wants. I really doubt a wild animal could kill him, and the likelihood of a ninja attacking him after all of that is rather low." Kakashi said.

"Alight then, let's get rid of these idiotic Kumo lot," Naruto said, moving into a rough Taijutsu stance.

-TT-

"So you are telling me you were tricked, met a Roku Kyoshu, got ambushed by an army of Jounin, watched the Jounin get slaughtered by single man and returned with a Gennin learning about secret techniques of a long dead clan?" Sarutobi asked. All of the ninja in his presence, consisting of Kisame Hoshigaki, Kurenai Yuhi, Kakashi Hatake, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Zaraki Kenpachi, Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, Zabuza Momochi and Haku Yuki nodded. The Third just rubbed his temple. "_I really am too old for this shit._"

Before the Sandaime could comment on the situation, a member of ANBU **Shunshinned** into the room. "Apologies for the interruption, Sandaime-sama, but the Honoured Council has asked for an emergency meeting to be help immediately. They have also asked for Naruto Uzumaki, Zabuza Momochi and Haku Yuki to attend the meeting," the ANBU stated in a monotonous voice.

"I see, we will be there shortly," Sandaime said. The masked ninja nodded, and left the room in the same fashion that he had entered. The Hokage turned towards the others present in the room. "Well, what's done is done. Naruto, Zabuza and Haku, come with me to the meeting. We will discuss Zabuza and Haku's fates there or afterwards. The others, you can go back to your normal duties. Well done on a mission accomplished."

Everyone, other than the Hokage, Naruto, Zabuza and Haku left the room. "Okay, before we go anywhere, I would like to warn you. The council, especially the civilian side, are a rowdy and greedy lot. I hope you are prepared for what is to come."

The others nodded towards the elderly, yet powerful, man. They followed him out of the office and into a dimly lit room with two tables. The Hokage sat at the head of the first table, sat aside for the Hokage and the shinobi side of the council, while the ninja that came in with the Hokage stood in a nervous line in front of the entire council. As the door closed with an audible crack, Naruto noticed some of the civilians giving Haku an almost lecherous stare.

"Alright, what is this meeting about?" The Hokage asked, without any sign of the massive amount of irritation that he was feeling. The council meetings he was called to were often foolish, repetitive and had almost no purpose behind them other than to just annoy him. At least, that was what he thought. He didn't have a single shred of doubt in his mind, this was going to be a long, long night for him.

"We are here to discuss the fate of Naruto Uzumaki, and the two missing nin that he has brought into the village," called one rotund individual. He looked to be an average merchant, and how he got into the Konoha High Council, Naruto had no idea. The power of money and stupidity of politics, he supposed. "We received word of the fact that Naruto Uzumaki attempted to betray his comrades in a mission. We propose that he be executed for treason against the village."

Naruto and Sarutobi mentally shook their heads, while Zabuza and Haku wondered why the council were so hostile towards the young blonde. "_They really are trying to find an excuse to kill me. God knows what it's going to take to get away from these vultures._"

"Declined," the room erupted into uproar. The ensuing shouting match took almost ten minutes to calm down, but an even louder shout by their leader did the job perfectly. "Naruto's reasons for interfering with the mission was perfectly justified and perhaps saved the lives of some of our most promising ninja."

"We demand to know how the De-brat saved any of the village's ninja," shouted the same man. He was so tantalisingly close to breaking the law that Hiruzen had unconsciously started to thumb a kunai in his hidden pocket.

"Those are military matters that the civilian council has no business in interfering," the Sandaime's voice rand with finality. "So, is that all you wanted to bother me about today?"

"In that case, we demand to know why two missing nin were allowed into the village," it seemed like the porky merchant was the spokesperson for the civilian side of the council, for he was doing all of the direct talking.

"One missing nin, actually," Naruto corrected, raising his hand as if asking for permission to talk. However, he didn't wait for anyone to acknowledge his request before speaking. "Haku Yuki is not listed in the Bingo Book as a missing nin. She was just trained by a missing nin."

"Fine, we demand to know why there is a missing nin among us." The spokesperson concluded.

"_**Who does that stupid, fat pig think he is? Demanding to know things from his superiors,**_" a voice in Naruto's head rang. It had been a while since he had heard the bloodthirsty voice of his surrogate elder brother speak to him. "**_You should kill the impudent bastard for even trying to do something like that_.**"

"_Now, now Kurama-nii, no need to start thinking such bloodthirsty thoughts,_" Naruto mentally chastised the beast, almost as if he was acting as the older brother. "_Think about happy things instead, like ponies. And stay quiet, I don't want to be spacing out in a council meeting._" Kurama stopped talking for the time being, but did not cut the mental link.

"It is because Zabuza Momochi has asked for asylum within our village, since his village is in the middle of the civil war," Naruto answered. "And that is perfectly legal, as long as the Hokage deems the ninja trustworthy, it doesn't matter if they are a missing ninja or not. So, there is no need for you to whinge about it." The last comment about whinging earned him a few more glares from the civilian side and a few snickers from the shinobi side.

"Who are you to tell us what is legal and what isn't, you Demo- brat!" The spokesperson was almost foaming at the mouth with rage.

"It's true," Shikaku Nara confirmed. He was always the voice of reason, and being the Jounin Commander, he was effectively the second highest ranked ninja in the village. "The rule has existed since the reign of the Nidaime, and has always been honoured if the situation came up."

That silenced worries about Zabuza. Most of them were more than happy to gain another powerful Jounin, though some of the civilians still gave him a distrustful glare or two. This, however, brought them to more pressing and irritating issues.

"What's next, or is that all?" Hiruzen asked. He could almost feel the headaches and migraines creeping up on him, and something told him that he was going to regret asking that question.

"It is about Naruto Uzumaki's newly found bloodline limit," the portly man said, while grinning triumphantly. Naruto shuddered at the accusing look the old man was giving him. "_Oh shit, this is not going to go well._"

**A/R: CUUUT! Not as big of a cliffy as the last one, but still a cliffhanger nonetheless. I decided that I was going to do more of them, since mindscrewing readers is fun.**

**=*=*=*Personal Opinion Rant=*=*=*=**

**Due to popular demand, the rants are back. And this time, it is something that is a legitimate concern. The subject this time around, the Mangekyo Sharingan.**

**Setting aside the fact that it is utterly overpowered, since you can kill someone by just looking at them or break their mind (really, cmon? Everlasting black flames? If that wasn't enough, unbreakable Genjutsu that breaks your mind? And then and invincible shield that pwns entire mountains at full strength?), what my problem with it is the way it is activated.**

**Itachi's Mangekyo activates when his friend, Shisui dies. His activates from the grief of losing a friend. Okay, fair enough reason for your powers to activate, only if it was followed through. The reasons for Shisui's Mangekyo activating were never said, and neither were Madara's and his brother's.**

**Okay, everything fine so far. Itachi tells Sasuke that killing his best friend would activate Mangekyo. Nothing wrong with that, except that it is REALLY twisted.**

**Then, Sasuke goes and activates his Mangekyo when his brother dies. Fair enough, still no problems, since he could have seen Itachi as his best friend.**

**Now then, you ask, where is my problem? KAKASHI'S MANGEKYO! Explain it to me, why did his Mangekyo activate when it did? Obito's death? THEN WHY DID IT NOT ACTIVATE IN THE SIXTEEN YEARS KAKASHI HAD THE SHARINGAN? Not fully matured? Not enough grief? Kakashi's Sharingan was three tomoe at the start of the series, so the maturing process wasn't the problem. Not enough grief? Then how did he suddenly have enough in the timeskip? He didn't suddenly make another best friend and kill them.**

**What I don't get, is WHAT THE HELL IS THE DEFINITE WAY OF ACTIVATING THE MANGEKYO? Like, seriously, the Mangekyo just appears whenever the plot needs it. And that isn't even mentioning the complete OPness of the moves. It's like saying "You don't have Sharingan? You ain't real ninja!". Like seriously, DAFUQ?**

**=*=*=*Personal Opinion Rant End =*=*=**

**Again, you were warned, so if you read without wanting to, too bad. If you do like my rants, let me know what you thought about this one.**


	22. The Secret of the Rinnegan

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Okay, no idea what happened. I just uploaded the chapter a couple of days ago, and already it has over forty reviews. Something must have been good about that chapter, or people were really excited to have the rants back, but a lot of reviews came in. It felt good to get that off my chest ... not really, I lied.**

**Zaraki poll is still up, go vote.**

**Now, onto the rant responses. A lot of you pointed out that Kakashi got his Mangekyo when he was forced to kill Rin, but that leaves me the question that why didn't he use his Mangekyo earlier? Even if he was saving it for a life and death situation, I am pretty sure fighting Itachi counts as a life and death moment. As for not knowing the existence of the Mangekyo, he just saw Itachi use it, so that ain't an excuse.**

**To people that said Shisui didn't have a Mangekyo, he actually did. His was similar to Itachi's, but it had four points instead of Itachi's three. His only known ability was the Kotoamatsukami, a really powerful Genjutsu.**

**On with the story!**

"Bloodline? What bloodline limit are you speaking of?" Naruto said, ever playing the fool. He didn't believe it for a second though, he knew the Council had him by the balls right now. He needed to play this right, or losing the trust of the Hokage for the rest of his days wouldn't be out of the question. "I am an orphan without a clan, there is no way I can have a bloodline limit."

"_Weird, I am pretty sure his eyes were from a Doujutsu when he fought me,_" Zabuza thought, confused. Something was going on, and Zabuza wanted to find out. "_Oh well, if he doesn't want the Council to know, it's better if I keep my mouth shut for now._"

"Now, now," the pot bellied man's voice was soft now, almost patronising and daring him to defy. "There is no need to deny it. We had a spy after you, and the reports say that you desplayed quite a powerful bloodline when fighting against Zabuza Momochi."

"_Oh boy, not good._" Then a thought of spies and rules about them came into mind. "_That could work. Better go on the offensive._"

"So you, a civilian, admit to having sent a spy after a ninja, a military official under the direct rule of the Hokage?" Naruto asked, keeping his voice neutral. While the Civilian Council were oblivious to his strategy, the Ninja Council saw the cunning in his words. The round spokesperson only nodded. "Then it would only be right that you be arrested for trying to find out state secrets from a military official." Naruto's face was stretched into a full blown grin now. He knew he was going to win this argument, at least.

"What are you talking about, a military official?" The unnamed man shouted, and a lot of the Civilian Council were nodding their heads in agreement. "You are barely a rookie Gennin. There is no way you could be considered a military official!"

"Actually, even Gennin are considered part of the military forces, no matter how young or green they are. We may not hold high ranks, but we are still different from civilians," Naruto's face formed a sneer of sorts, without losing his earlier grin. He was going to enjoy reversing their words onto them and watching them squirm. "Not only that, I also know Forbidden Jutsu of the state, even though I am a Gennin, so it could have been seen as an attempt to find out about those techniques and commit treason."

"What Forbidden Jutsu do you know?" Shikaku Nara asked, rather curious. He wasn't aware of the fact that rookie Gennin were allowed to access Forbidden techniques, let alone use them. And if someone like Shikaku wasn't aware that it was possible, it was rather likely that it wasn't possible.

"Ah, things like Shadow Clones and Exploding Shadow Clones," Naruto said, then added as an afterthought, considering his new knowledge: "Among other ones."

"Those are indeed Forbidden, even if they are low ranked in comparison to most Forbidden techniques," Shikaku said, with a confirming nod. He wasn't that surprised that the boy could use those techniques, considering his Chakra reserves, courtesy of his position as the Kyubi's Jinchuriki. However, a perspective man such as Shikaku didn't miss the addition of the last statement, and was rather curious of what other Jutsu the boy knew.

"Leave him be, there is no need to arrest a Council member over something so small," the Hokage said. He really wanted to arrest and execute the man, but the accompanying rise in paperwork wouldn't be worth it. He had more than enough work as it was, there was no need to quadruple the load. "But let me warn you, something like this happens again, you will be stripped of your rank and executed."

"So, is there anything else the Civilian Council would like to address, before they are dismissed?" Hiruzen asked, allowing some of his irritation to show on his face. These meetings were irritating at the best of times, but this was one of the worst ones he had in a while. It was starting to give him a migraine-like headache.

"Yes, whether we found out by illegal means or not, we still need to find out what will be done with the demon's bloodline-"

"Careful, Council member. Was I not so lenient, I would have killed you on the spot. Breaking that law is grounds for instant execution!" Naruto warned, though his voice lacked any venom. He knew that threatening the civilians would have no effect, they were all thick skulled morons anyway.

"Whatever, so what will be done about it?"

"What do you mean? He has a bloodline, so what?" The Sandaime ground out. Internally, he was wounded by the fact that Naruto wouldn't tell him about having a bloodline, but he couldn't show that in front of the Council. They would only gain more misguided confidence if he let his true feelings show. Of course, Danzo, being the observative man he was, didn't miss the slight tremor in his old friend's voice.

"He should be made to enact the CRA!" Haruno shouted. That in itself should have been a crime. It was a rather well known fact that glass never survived near a female member of the Haruno, what with their high voices and all. "It would serve to strengthen Konoha, if we were to have more ninja with bloodlines!"

"I refuse!" Naruto shouted. He really didn't want to have this discussion. Ever since he had activated his Rinnegan, he always had the fear of this discussion, and whether he could squirm out of having to violate several women that he might not even know. "I have every right to refuse."

"No you don't, it is a law that was made to strengthen the village!" Haruno shouted. It would seem that at the mention of the CRA, she had taken over the discussion from the earlier spokesman.

"Tell me then, why wasn't Sasuke Uchiha forced to breed the Sharingan?" Naruto asked. He was getting along with the guy better than before, so he didn't really feel comfortable about bringing up a subject which could potentially get the other boy screwed. However, this was a necessity for maintaining his own integrity.

"Because we mustn't alienate Uchiha-sama!" Haruno screamed. Several pieces of glass in the room and in the vicinity of it threatened to shatter from the decibels being emitted, but somehow held strong. They must have been really willful, to have survived that outburst.

"Why is that?" Naruto asked, rather amused. He knew he was going to win this argument, one way or another. The Council members were good at pushing paper, and that was it. When it came to a debate, they were dumber than a piece of meat. Speaking of which, he was rather hungry after the long day of travel.

"If we alienate Uchiha-sama, then he might leave the village. We can't risk losing the last of the Sharingan!" Some of the pieces of glass with weaker wills finally gave way, and succumbed to their fate. They shattered.

"I see," Naruto said, almost slipping into that sagely persona that he kept hidden. It threatened to come out sometimes, but he tried to keep it in check. "This is all hypothetical, of course, but what if I was to leave the village?"

"We will all be better for it, you brat!" The man that spoke first shouted, and the majority of the Civilian Council gave him agreeing nods. The Shinobi Council, however, were not as oblivious.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Danzo shouted. He surprised everyone with his outburst. He was always the calm one, the one that meticulously thought everything out during a time of conflict. To see that same Danzo lose his cool was a shock to everyone, including the Hokage. "Losing the last of the Sharingan wouldn't hurt us nearly as much as losing _it_. Having him in the village is a sign of power, no matter whether he is properly trained or not." By the end of his mini rant, Danzo had casually slipped back into his calm visage.

"_What the hell? Just who is this Naruto kid? If they are willing to lose something like the Sharingan over him, then he must really be someone special. I will be asking him about that later," _Zabuza thought. Being able to talk to Council members without flinching was one thing, but for the Council to value him over a Kekkei Genkai as powerful as the Sharingan? Something was fishy here.

"Ah," Naruto started, feigning ignorance. "There is no way some street-scum orphan like me would be more valuable than their precious _Uchiha-sama, _please excuse my impertinence." Despite his words, his voice was nothing short of dripping with sarcasm, and everyone picked up on it. The fact that he mentioned he was an orphan from the streets didn't escape him either.

"But still, we should force him into the CRA and strengthen Konoha with another Bloodline!" Haruno shrieked desperately. She really wanted to get a hold of that Bloodline so she could raise the status of her family from a large civilian family to a shinobi clan.

"Choose your words carefully, Haruno-sama," regardless of the honorific, his voice was venomous and disrespectful. "You would want neither my Bloodline nor my _tenant_ as the enemy of the Leaf." And under his breath, added: "Not that you haven't given me enough reason to leave already."

"Again, out of curiousity, what _is _your Bloodline?" Shikaku asked. He knew from experience that being polite and not pushing someone too far was a wonderful way of getting information. Being friendly and buying them a few drinks worked wonders too, but he was opposed to inebriating a pre-teen, ninja or not.

Naruto turned from the Civilian Council to the Shinobi one. "There is no point in me telling you," Naruto said dismissively. He tried to keep a false image of bravado, not wanting to disclose any information about his Rinnegan. He knew that as soon as the words were out of his mouth, the Council would be upon him like a flock of vultures.

"And why would that be?"

"Because it's far too weak to even be considered a proper Bloodline," Naruto said smugly, thought mentally added: "_Weak, my ass. Probably strong enough to make the strongest Uchiha look like an idiot._"

Shikaku was a cunning man, despite his lazy disposition and his carefree attitude. He was the Jounin Commander for a reason, and that sole reason was that his intellect was leagues upon leagues higher than any human alive in the Hidden Leaf. Even his son, with his IQ of 200 wasn't anywhere close to his intelligence. And being a Shinobi for so long, his instincts weren't shabby either. Right now, both his gut instincts and brain were screaming at him to find out more about that Bloodline, to find out what was under that mask of deceit.

"It may be weak now, but I would like to know it's name regardless," Shikaku said, all the while faking disinterest. The Nara were rather good at that, seeing as they were naturally so lazy and disinterested. The laziness may have something to do with their innate intelligence, though no concrete evidence had been found yet. But underneath that facade of carelessness was a calculating, ruthless demon of a man.

"_Shit, he has me trapped. I either spill the beans, and risk the Council descending on me like a pack of wolves, or lie to them. Lying would be a bad idea, Shikaku and Shibi would catch me in an instant. Not to mention Hiashi's Byakugan. Damn Clan Heads and their abilities to detect the slightest bit of deception. Of course, I could outright refuse, but that would just bring on more bloody suspicion,_" Naruto's face adopted a rueful smile. "_I might have gotten smarter but damn. You really are a monster, Shikaku Nara._"

It was a little known fact, but Ibiki Morino was not the best mental interrogator in Konoha. In fact, that title went to the Head of the Nara clan, Shikaku. He had left the Torture and Interrogation division a long time ago, but his skills stayed sharp. The man was a ninja designed for war, with a mind that literally missed no detail and a tongue that squeezed out any and all information out of his enemies. It was a scary combination.

Naruto deflated with a sigh. "You got me, you lazy prat," Naruto held up his hands in a placating manner, showing that he was only kidding. He had decided to go with the safest option, which was the one that made him lose the least amount of the Hokage's trust. "It's a Doujutsu known as the Rinnegan."

As expected, the entirety of the Civilian Council looked almost oblivious to the significance of the name. They were, however, almost salivating at the prospect of another Doujutsu, regardless of how weak it may have been. Not that Doujutsu were ever weak. They were famed for their strength, since normally, nothing but Chakra was required to use a Doujutsu. And since it was something in the eye and needed no extra effort to keep active, they also tended to be rather convenient.

The Shinobi Council's expressions were almost identical to that of the Civilian one. Most of them didn't know what the Rinnegan was, but the ones that did know had large, disbelieving looks on their faces. These ninja consisted of the Sandaime, Shikaku and surprisingly Hiashi Hyuga.

"You lie!" Hiashi shouted, almost rising from his seat. Usually, most wouldn't be able to discern the difference between the Head of the Hyuga clan and an ice sculpture, but that cold man was gone now, replaced with an incredulous one. "There is no way a street ruffian like you could develop something like the Rinnegan."

Naruto's only response was to stare impassively at the white eyed man. Seeing the Hyuga's apparent outrage, Tsume Inuzuka (Head of the Inuzuka clan) decided to speak up. "Just what is the Rinnegan?"

Hiashi went into something similar to the Sandaime's patented Professor Mode. "The Byakugan, the eyes gifted to the Hyuga, are said to be the Eyes of Angels. This is garnered from the white colour and to see all around us." He took a breath, before continuing in the same monotonous voice. His face was still strained, though. "The Sharingan, the eyes of the Uchiha, are said to the Eyes of the Devil, because of the Uchiha's deceptive nature and the blood red colour of their eyes. These two are naturally powerful set of eyes that have the potential to rule the world, if they were mastered fully."

"Yes, but what does that have to do with the Rinnegan?" Tsume asked, almost annoyed.

"First, I believe it would be best if the Civilian Council, Haku Yuki and Zabuza Momochi were to leave the room for a while," Hiashi said, making his subtle order known.

The Council knew what kind of man Hiashi was, so they left the room in a hurry, though they grumbled about not being told the full story behind the new pair of eyes that had graced the Hidden Leaf. The two former missing nin walked out with much less drama, but had no less confusion written across their faces.

"Well?" Tsume prompted, barely containing her impatience. She almost felt like leaping at the man and clawing him to bits for making her wait for so long.

"The Rinnegan, along with the Sharingan and the Byakugan, completes the Three Great Doujutsu. The purple, ring like eyes have a hypnotic quality to them. Their powers unknown, with only vague descriptions of what they could do, but there was one thing that was confirmed," the face of the Head of the Hyuga clan darkened considerably, and twisted into a grimace, as if he had swallowed something bitter. "The full power of neither the Eyes of Angels nor the Eyes of the Devil hold a candle to the power and authority known as the Kami no Me."

"The Eyes of God ..." Tsume said reverently. The Council would have reacted more violently, had they not been so dumbstruck. They were also interrupted by Hiashi forging on with his lecture.

"While the very epitome of the Sharingan or Byakugan's power may allow you enough power to rule the world, the Rinnegan's sole purpose in existence is to rule and govern the world through power and power alone. It was said that in a time of extreme conflict, a 'God of Creation' or a 'Demon of Destruction' would be gifted with the Rinnegan to shape the world as they pleased."

"As expected of the Head of the Hyuga clan, you really are knowledgeable about the other Doujutsu in the world," Naruto said. He was almost grinning, but his nervousness over their reactions didn't allow him to smirk. At that particular moment, worry struck him. What would they do to him now that they knew about his Rinnegan? He refused to violate women he might not even know, dammit!

"**_Don't worry so_ much,**" the voice of Samsara spoke into his mind. His voice was the same as he remembered from his mindscape, that dual layered, conflicted voice that somehow calmed his nerves. "_**Just tell them the truth. A perfect blend of Uchiha and Senju blood is required for the Rinnegan to activate, one that can only be produced by the dead Uzumaki clan. And even when they were alive, the Rinnegan was rare to the point of non**_** existence.**"

"Well, what do we do about his Doujutsu then?" Tsume asked. She didn't have any of the lecherous grin that the Civilian Council had, but even a noble woman such as her couldn't refuse the potential an army of Rinnegan had. They could easily become the strongest of the hidden villages. "Naruto, we want you to seriously think about the CRA. It would be monumentally helpful to the village."

"Well Naruto, what is your answer?" The wisened Hokage asked, but seeing the young boy's expression, added: "You don't have to feel forced into this. It is entirely your choice."

"It's pointless," Naruto said, surprising the clan Heads present (the Sandaime was the head of the Sarutobi clan). "The Rinnegan can't be bred en masse."

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Hiruzen asked and for once, the Professor had a confused face on.

"The Rinnegan needs a perfect blend of Uchiha and Senju blood to activate. This perfect blend can only be achieved by the Uzumaki clan, but they are all dead except for me. But who knows, maybe the blood of the Hyuga would be able to replace the Sharingan? They are the two parts of the same Doujutsu after all."

"Again, what do you mean?" Hiashi sounded somewhat angry at that statement. He didn't want anything to do with the Uchiha clan.

"No offense, Hiashi, but the truth of the matter is the Byakugan is a bastardised version of the Rinnegan. It was formed when a Senju and an Uchiha fell in love and had to run away to avoid persecution. They took up the name Hyuga," how he was getting this information was beyond him, but he just chalked it up to the new influx of knowledge in his head. He was supposed to have accurate recounting of the world's history, after all. "So basically, the Byakugan is a much weaker version of the Rinnegan and has the same DNA make up as the Rinnegan. Who knows, maybe me ... mating with a Hyuga might give birth to another Rinnegan, but the chances are slim at the very best."

"So ... what do you suggest?" Hiashi looked perturbed. He didn't want anyone of his clan to be used as breeding stock, even if they were from the Branch Family.

"I do not suggest anything," Naruto said. Like the Hokage, he could almost feel the migraine that was coming on. "I am utterly against taking up the CRA. I think the damn rule should be abolished."

"Alright, this is what we will do," the Sandaime banished the confusion and the migraine, and took up his leadership voice. He was done being confused by things that were beyond even his understanding. "Everything, and I mean every single detail, of this discussion is branded an SS Rank secret, punishable by death of the person that caused the leak, and every single person that was told by that person. And remember, if a single person outside this room is told of this, I will know who to suspect. There is nobody bar us that knows of this secret."

Everyone got the message. Keep your mouth shut, or die.

At that moment, a knock was heard at the door. The nervous and edgy people in the room jumped a little at the sound, but kept their composure. They turned towards the door, waiting for the Hokage to call in the person at the door.

"Come in," came the commanding voice of the Hokage. Even in his old age, his voice rang with authority that came with being a Kage for so long. For the majority of the time that Konohagakure no Sato was in existence, it was led by the Sandaime. He had reigned for almost double the time that his mentors had reigned, combined!

A masked ANBU came stealthily into the room, closing an locking the door behind him. He stepped up to the table where the Council sat, and kneeled in front of it. He didn't seem scared, not by his posture anyway.

"Hokage-sama, the Civilian Council has asked for permission to resume their seats. They said that they still had matters to discuss." The ANBU's voice was monotonous, masking any sign of any nervousness he might have felt.

"Bring them in."

-TT-

Twenty minutes later found the Civilian Council arguing with the Shinobi faction and the Hokage, while Naruto Uzumaki, Zabuza Momochi and Haku Yuki stood in the background. They were trying to stifle their laughter, lest they be found and punished. Naruto had to admit, he never thought that Council meetings could get that comical. It was almost like watching a slapstick film in colour.

"We demand that Haku Yuki be put into the CRA to breed more ninja with the Hyoton Kekkei Genkai!" One deluded Council member shouted. Despite their earlier warnings, they had totally forgotten that they were speaking to their superiors and could be evicted from their seat without a moments notice. It seemed that the habit of ordering everyone around ran deep.

"Like I said, a person cannot be forced into the CRA," Hiruzen Sarutobi was massaging his temple unabashedly now. His migraine had gotten too bad to ignore. He didn't encounter this much resistance from the Civilian faction in a long, long time. Usually, they argued and gave him a headache, but allowed him to run things the way he wanted to in the end.

"You are the Hokage, you can do anything you want!" The same man shouted, oblivious to what he shouted. Apparently, he didn't consider killing the entirety of the Civilian Council on the spot a part of 'you can do anything you want'. Such stupid specimens they were.

"Haku has said no, and according to the laws in Konoha, her wishes are to be respected. That is final," it had been a while, but the God of Shinobi was back in business. It seemed that all it needed was a migraine, and he decided to put his foot down and stomp on the heads of the Civilian Council. "As for Zabuza Momochi, he will be assigned as a Jounin and he will be taking on a Gennin team comprised of Haku Yuki, a new Gennin. You are all dismissed."

-TT-

Naruto was walking the streets towards his little apartment that he shared with Kisame and Itachi, when he ran into the last person he wanted to see. He remembered the promise he made to let him see Itachi, but only now did he realise what he had promised. Itachi wouldn't be happy about him letting slip the secret about him being back in the village.

"Naruto, I have been waiting for you," Sasuke's voice was calm, but he could hear the underlying nervousness. He had spent years on the streets, where everyone tried to mask their fears, nervousness and secret intentions. He had become a master in sensing and identifying them. "You promised, now tell me, where is he?"

Naruto got what he meant. "You sure you don't want more time to prepare?" Seeing Sasuke's expression, he nodded. "Alright, I will take you to him, but remember: no violence."

**A/R: I am sorry, I am sorry. Don't bite me. I promise, from the next chapter onwards, I will stop with the cliffies. It was funny to see some of the reactions, though.**

**That felt good, I was planning to write a longer chapter sometime soon. Next chapter should cover Itachi and Sasuke's reunion and some training before the Chunin exams start. Right now, they are eleven years old, bordering on twelve. When the Chunin exams start, they will be almost thirteen. So basically, the Chunin exams will be in the normal timeline, whereas they have been younger than cannon so far.**

**Anywho, no rant this time around, I still haven't decided what my next rant will be about.**

**Please review, it is the fuel that keeps me writing. It would be highly appreciated if you left a review saying even just Good Job, and anonymous reviews are appreciated too.**


	23. The Two Brothers Meet

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Okay, I know I said I wouldn't do long, long A/Rs anymore, but bear with me just for this chapter. And please do read all of it, if you could be so kind.**

**Apologies for the delay in getting the chapter out, but I had things to do. It was Eid ul Adha this Friday, so understandably, I was not able to write. Sorry, but that's life for ya. Anyhow, thanks for all the reviews, it never ceases to amaze me how many reviews per chapter an established Naruto fic can get. On that note, YAY! Over 400 reviews and over 100k hits in the same chapter! I think, anyway. The story has 115k hits and 427 reviews now, never thought I would get this far this early on. Nice!**

**Zaraki poll is still up, just letting ya know.**

**PLEASE READ! Seeing as you are reading chapter 23 of this story, I assume you like my writing. I have recently written a one shot named Trick or Treat and it is up on the Team Dragon Star account. It's a group I write for and I submitted a story for a Halloween competition they are running. If you are interested, please go read it. Reviews are appreciated, as they count towards deciding the overall winner.**

** www . fanfiction s / 8646580 / 1 / Trick-or-Treat**

**Copy/Paste that into the URL bar and take out all the spaces. Thank you in advance.**

**Also, I decided I will use Jutsu names in Japanese and in English. Whatever sounds cooler, will be used. As for the weights Naruto was wearing, I realised that Lee's weights left some large craters when they were dropped, and roughly 300 KG wouldn't be nearly enough to cause that. So, for the sake of ... I don't know what, Naruto's current weights shall magically be multiplied by ten. So now, Naruto is wearing 3 tonnes in total, rather than 300 KG. Thinking back on it, that was a bad idea ... even a normal human can pick that up. Okay ... maybe not normal, but some of the strongest people can.**

**On with the story!**

In a laboratory, far away from Konohagakure, a mad scientist sat, staring at the results of his most recent experiment. He was disturbed by it. Not many people knew him, but those that did would say that if it was something that disturbed this mad scientist, then it must be disturbing indeed. This mad scientist, you see, had a name that he was known far and wide by. It was a name that struck fear into the heart of the feeble and made the strong quake in their boots.

Orochimaru was his name.

A few days ago, one of his pawns had run into his hide out with a Jutsu scroll that she had found. Guren, unknown to all but Orochimaru, had a habit of grave robbing and treasure hunting. Her latest escapade had brought some rather unexpected results. Rather than shiny bits of metal that she usually walked in with, Guren came into his current rat hole with an old and tattered looking scroll. Orochimaru had taken it from her, thanked her profusely and told her to go rest. She didn't realise what a groundbreaking theory was contained in the scroll.

He had to admit, he was skeptical at first about whether the thing would actually work. Something like raising the dead was an unfathomable concept, even to one as knowledgeable in Kinjutsu as himself. But what was even more difficult to believe was that the Nidaime Hokage was one to dabble in necromancy. It almost made him scoff.

His initial skepticism was blown out of the window with the help of a bazooka wielding Itachi Uchiha (figuratively) when the results of his first tests came in. Rather than the mutilated pounds of flesh that he was expecting, what he got was a living organism that he was _sure _he killed off last year. Well, at least that meant that he could actually revive people from the dead. There was a high cost involved, though.

At least, that's what normal people would think.

To Orochimaru, acquiring DNA of a dead person was no matter. Even if it amounted to grave robbing or whatever, he had no morals. Next, a living person was required to be used as a vessel. While normal people would opt out at this stage, Orochimaru was more than happy to kill a person or two to see if a Kinjutsu as amazing as this actually worked.

Orochimaru's surprise increased when he found out that he could actually _control_ the people that he revived. To an extent, anyway. The people he revived, in essence, became his slaves, without their own will.

He had to experiment more, with more powerful and willful people. He still had DNA samples of the Yondaime Hokage, so he tried to revive him next. Imagine his surprise when the Shinigami himself, black cape and unwieldy scythe and all, materialised out of thin air in front of him.

What's more, the Shinigami was _growling_ at him. Oh boy, this would not end well.

Either for the world, or himself.

-TT-

Naruto sat in the oppressive silence of his living room, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows twitching away like they had a mind of their own. Normally, the house was loud and rowdy, thanks to Naruto and Kisame's constant bickering, but now that Kisame was replaced by someone much quieter, the silence was defeaning.

"Itachi-nii ..." Naruto started, looking over to the older male to his right.

"It's alright," Itachi cut him off, not wanting to hear apologies. He had much more important matters to deal with, more so than a stupid student that went and babbled about a supposed S Rank missing nin being in the village again. "If you don't mind, can you leave the two of us alone for a while?"

"Well, I got groceries to stock up on," with that answer, Naruto high tailed from his own house, wanting to get the heck away from the thick atmosphere. It was starting to get under his skin, sitting with the two newly reunited brothers. Though, before he left the door, he turned back and shouted: "Let him have the whole story, Itachi-nii, you owe him that much!"

"_I owe him much more than an explanation_," Itachi thought sadly, looking at the murderous looking Sasuke before him. He hadn't said anything to his older brother yet, fearing that he would lose his composure and attack Itachi if he so much as spoke. He knew he was no match for the older man, not yet anyway, but he knew that wouldn't have stopped him from trying.

"What do you want to hear first, my foolish little brother?" Sasuke didn't expect that. Despite leaving on such a sour note, Itachi didn't seem any different. He still had that stoic, amused aura about him, as if viewing the world from a detached point of view and laughing at them. He hadn't heard Itachi laugh in a long time, though.

"Why did you kill my clan?" He wasn't referring it to as their clan, as a collective anymore. He had ruled Itachi out as a member of the Uchiha clan. He refused to believe someone could do something to their own family. Itachi wasn't part of the Uchiha anymore, never was, that was his answer.

"Our clan, foolish little brother," Itachi ignored the increase of anger on his brother's visage. "It's quite simple, I was given orders to eliminate the Uchiha clan."

If Sasuke was shocked, he didn't show it. Yet. "By the Hokage?"

"No, by Danzo, one of the elders," Itachi said, shaking his head.

"Why?" It was a simple question, but such anguish behind the word surprised Itachi. He knew Sasuke would have been grieving, but not to this level.

"The Uchiha clan were planning a coup d'etat ..."

It took Itachi the better part of an hour to finish his tale. By the end of it, a reeling Sasuke was left sitting on his new friend's couch, Kisame had come and gone, and Naruto was now standing in the corner of the room. He had come in half way through the retelling to make sure no murderous acts were being carried out in his house. He had Sasuke's word, but he couldn't be too sure. After all, Uchihas were known to be traitors ... in one form or other.

Sasuke turned to Naruto in anger. "You knew all of this?"

"Not all of it, but I learned most of the story by following Itachi-nii during that time," Naruto replied, somehow hanging onto his calm visage. He didn't look troubled at all, despite the modest amount of killing intent Sasuke was directing at him.

"How did you tail Itachi without found?" Sasuke asked, opting to act confused rather than angry. Well, he was confused. How does a 7 or 8 year old follow around an ANBU captain for so long without being found?

"I was under a **Henge**," Naruto said, not moving from his spot in the corner of the room. Sitting on the couch would be more comfortable, but he didn't want to be in the blast zone if Sasuke lost his temper.

"**Henges** are just illusionary changes in appearance, how did that help you to follow someone trained to spot **Henges**?" Sasuke wasn't buying Naruto's story just yet. **Henge **wasn't designed to fool high ranking ninjas like Itachi.

"My Chakra is far, far more potent than normal people, even without the presence of Kyubi, his presence only amplifies it. It makes my **Henges** completely solid, so I actually change appearance," seeing the other boy's confused look upon the explanation of Chakra potency, Naruto decided to explain. "Chakra potency is how powerful your Chakra is. The more potent it is, the less Chakra you will need for any Jutsu. And unlike control and reserves, Chakra potency can't be trained, it's something you're born with."

"So, why didn't you tell me? About the reason Itachi-nii killed our clan?" Itachi noted, with no small amount of satisfaction, that his foolish little brother was back to calling him his older brother again, and was acknowledging him as a part of the Uchiha clan. It was far more than he could have hoped for, and a far better start than he expected.

"Like I said in Wave, it wasn't my story to tell," Naruto's voice rang with a sense of finality. He looked to the window, noticing that it was later than he first thought. "It's turning night, so get out. I'm tired and I need my sleep."

For once, Sasuke actually showed a genuine expression of surprise. He wasn't expecting something like that. "What about Itachi-nii?"

"Until further notice, he is hiding out in my house and is a part of ANBU," Naruto said dismissively. Then, seeing that Sasuke wasn't moving from his spot on the couch, went over and picked the boy up by the back of the collar.

"If you didn't get what I meant, I was kicking you out of my house," he punctuated that by literally punting the other boy out of the window. He was satisfied to hear a loud thump from the outside. Itachi blinked at him stupidly for a second, before succumbing to a fit of laughter. By normal people standards, not Itachi standards. Naruto joined in after he heard grumblings of 'idiotic dobes' from outside his window.

-TT-

Naruto stood in his usual training ground, waiting for his sensei to arrive. Normally, he would be doing a hoard of missions by now, but Kisame had told him not to go off today, saying something about having to tell Naruto about some important stuff. Naruto didn't particularly care about doing even more D Ranks, so he complied.

Exactly eleven minutes and fifty nine seconds later, Naruto was surprised to see both Kisame and Itachi coming in through the entrance of the training field, walking towards him. Itachi was garbed in the normal outfit of an ANBU, complete with white, flowing cloak to cover his armour and a ceramic weasel mask to conceal his face. Kisame was wearing the standard uniform for a Konoha Jounin, having no personal preference in clothing. Plus, ninja uniforms were comfortable and easy to move around in.

Kisame and Itachi stopped in front of him, and looked at him as if sizing him up as an opponent. Then, after almost a fully minute of inspection, they both nodded in unison.

"Seems like we have succeeded in building a solid body to withstand the backlash from Ninjutsu," Itachi said, crossing his arms over his chest. Hearing the comment, Naruto looked thoroughly confused. What on Earth were they talking about?

"Some explanation, please?" Naruto had learned, many months ago, that asking for things politely got better results than simply demanding. Whatever small difference it made, it wasn't costing him anything, so he deemed politeness to be worth the effort.

"I'm sure you noticed that for as long as we have been training you, all you have been doing nothing other than physical exercises," Naruto nodded, not seeing where this was going. "Yet we did not train you in any actual Taijutsu style. It was all because we were making you build a strong body so that you could withstand the backlash from using powerful Ninjutsu. Usually, people start with using small and weak Jutsu, so that they could slowly build up their bodies, but we dropped in the deep end so that we could teach you some decent B to S rank Jutsu."

Kisame almost burst out laughing after seeing the starry eyed look on Naruto's face. "Did you actually think we would make you a Taijutsu expert, with the potency of your Chakra and the amount you have?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head in an embarrassed manner. "Well, I have a few Jutsu I want to learn first, so would you mind supervising me while I do that?" Naruto was directing his question at Kisame.

"Hell no!" Naruto's face almost fell through the ground at hearing that. "I'm pawning you off to Itachi for the Ninjutsu portion of your training." With that, Kisame left the scene, but not before doing one more thing to infuriate his single student.

"Kisame ... I SWEAR I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Naruto seethed, seeing his teacher vanish slowly in that agonising, overdramatic **Shunshin **his. "Someday, I'm gonna find a way to seal you so that if you try to use that bastarded move, you end up in your grave."

For the second time in the week, Itachi succumbed to a fit of raucous laughter.

"You're going weird Itachi-nii, I never knew you could laugh," hearing that only made him laugh harder. Just because he didn't do it in front of them, didn't mean he didn't regularly laugh at people.

"What Jutsu do you want to practice first?" Itachi asked, still giggling a little. Naruto was slowly edging away from him. He was sure the older man had gone senile.

"Hmm ... **Raiton: Raijin **should be a good start." Naruto ran through the handsigns and focused Lighning Chakra to his palm, only to yell a moment later.

"OOOOWWWW! THAT HURTS!" He screamed, hopping on one foot and cradling his singed arm. It seemed like the Jutsu had misfired and burned him instead.

"Oh Naruto-kun," Itachi said in a singsong voice, completely uncharacteristic of someone as stoic as him. Something told him that Itachi was enjoying his pain immensely, knowing that he would heal up in minutes. "Return to the basics for you!"

Naruto tried to run away, only to be dragged back by Itachi and forced to start on the exercises.

"And no **Shadow Clones**." Seeing the confused look on Naruto's face, Itachi explained: "We recently theorised that using them to train was a bad idea. Since the Kyubi has to constantly heal you, the repeated damage and repair cycle will slowly whittle away at your lifespan. What is done is done, but we don't want to make your life any shorter than it already is."

Naruto shrugged, and went back to cutting the leaf with his Lightning Chakra.

**A/R: CUUUT! That is a wrap, and I thought that was a rather nice chapter. Sorry if the Uchiha reunion wasn't up to snuff, but there will be some more of the effects in a later chapter. Sorry if there are some spacing errors in the chapter, but my keyboard is being a total bitch.**

**Please review, it helps me motivate myself to write. If the review count goes higher than a certain number, I might add an extra rant in there next chapter. I plan on doing one anyway, but an extra might be done!**


	24. Here it comes, The Chunin Exams

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: You guys have heard the excuses of writers so many times, it probably all sounds like bullshit to you guys. To be honest, we are normal people like you and we don't actually gain anything from writing these, so we don't actually owe the readers anything. It might sound like jokes, but to send death threats (however lighthearted they are) over not being given free entertainment is going a bit far.**

**On to the actual excuses. You know the normal deal, school, homework, exams. But ALSO! I went back to my country on a school trip for about a couple weeks, so that has taken up almost all of my time for the past few weeks or so. And I have been sick for a while afterwards. And dealing with jet lag for the first time (even though I have travelled cross-continent far over ten times) was a bitch. So apologies to the non violent readers for the delay.**

**On to the story!**

Itachi, Naruto and Kisame were sitting around the small coffee table in the equally small living room of Naruto's equally small apartment. For three of them, it was rather cramped conditions and realistically, Kisame could have moved out ages ago. He liked it here though, not that he would admit it, and he would miss the constant banter with Naruto if he left.

Currently, the three were talking about an issue Itachi had brought up during Naruto's most recent training session. The **Kage Bunshin no Jutsu **was one of Naruto's favourite techniques, and the most useful for training in his arsenal. He wasn't about to give up on regularly training with that technique unless he absolutely had to. Hearing Itachi's explanation, he was almost convinced that he needed to quit using the Jutsu for heavy training.

"So tell me, how does it actually harm me?" Naruto asked, looking every bit as skeptical as he felt. He hadn't gotten any less skeptical since they had started the conversation. In fact, he was becoming more and more suspicious by the second.

"For the last time, Naruto, it's whittling away at your life span!" Kisame said, looking utterly exasperated at the boy's stubbornness. He had lost a lot of his childish habits since having the Seal removed, but apparently stubbornness didn't count as childish in his books. Or something like that.

Itachi sighed. Naruto could be hard to convince when he didn't want to be convinced about something. "Due to the fact that the Shadow Clones send back memory and fatigue to the original creator, it causes your muscles great stress. In fact, you don't realise it since when you release your Shadow Clones, we use a forced sleep technique on you, but your muscles actually nearly liquefy every night. Since the Kyubi is within you and is helpful, he heals you up overnight. But the thing is, the Kyubi has to overload your system with his Chakra, and that constant cycle of damage and repair is slowly whittling away your life span."

"How bad is it?" When Itachi shot him a confused look, he expanded: "How many years do you think I have lost so far?"

"Considering you have been training for so long and hard with that method, I would say about 20 years." Kisame looked alarmed.

"So does that mean, Naruto will live till the age of 40, maximum?" After all, the average life expectancy of civilians was no more than 60, and ninja didn't even have a life expectancy.

"I suppose so -" Itachi began, before being cut off.

"40 years? No, no. I predict my life span to be somewhere in the 300s or the 400s." Kisame and Itachi looked at him like he was completely stupid.

"It isn't possible for a normal human to live that long." Kisame said with an agitated voice. He was willing to believe a lot of things in the world, but a life expectancy that insane? It wasn't possible.

"Who said I was a normal human?"

"Explain," Itachi ordered, in a voice that Naruto had dubbed his 'ANBU Voice'.

"I am an Uzumaki, a head family Uzumaki no less. We are notorious for our long life spans. An average Uzumaki male can live somewhere up to a 100 years if they have the bloodline, and up to around 175 if they don't have it." Naruto was sporting a grin at the gobsmacked expressions on his teachers' faces.

"Okay, that still doesn't explain being able to live somewhere between 300 to 400 years." Kisame said, doubt clearly colouring his voice. He wasn't even attempting to hide the fact that he wasn't believing Naruto. Itachi looked thoughtful though. "_Seems like Itachi might have figured it out._" Naruto thought.

"The fact that I have the Kyubi sealed inside me just doubles my vitality on top of my Uzumaki vitality," Naruto said, looking less amused than before. The Kyubi was still a touchy subject for him.

"How does that work? The fact that Kyubi both increases and decreases your vitality, that doesn't make any sense." Kisame said, looking less doubtful and more confused.

"I don't know. It's just what Kyubi told me, something about automatically strengthening my body to take the strain of its Chakra increasing my vitality as well."

"So then, are you planning on still using the Jutsu for training?" Kisame asked, preparing to ban his student from ever using the Jutsu again. If he knew Naruto, he knew that the boy would do anything necessary to get stronger. He was convinced that the young Ninja would give up a few more years for the sake of getting stronger, faster.

"Heavens no, I want to make sure that the Uzumaki clan becomes a powerful clan again before I die. That isn't going to happen in a single generation, so I plan to stick around for a long time. Plus, I want to be the Hokage for as long as possible." Naruto said. When he saw the doubtful look in Kisame's face, he started to get a little agitated. "For God's sake Kisame, I am not going to say I am not going to do something in your presence, then go do that exact thing when your back is turned. You can wipe that look off your face, thank you very much."

"Well, Naruto-kun, if you aren't going to be using Shadow Clones to train anymore, I suggest you get cracking on your Chakra control and Elemental Manipulation. Right away." Itachi said. The amused glint returned to his eyes as he watched Naruto drag himself out of the room, ready to train once again.

-TT-

(Timeskip: 11 months)

If Shikamaru was honest with himself, which he usually was, he had to admit that he couldn't have gotten a better Sensei if he had created the man himself. Asuma was laid back, cheerful and an all round awesome guy, but was also a good teacher. Everything Shikamaru could hope for. He didn't even have to train like a madman, something he feared his Jounin instructor was going to make him do.

So imagine his surprise when Asuma turned up to their meeting spot, one Saturday morning and told them to run like their lives depended on it. Poor Chouji would have to lose a few pounds soon.

"Asuma, what is going on? Why is it that you are suddenly insisting on building up our skills in Taijutsu?" Shikamaru asked, ever the suspicious Nara that he was. It didn't add up in his mind, Asuma never pushed them that hard in training.

"It's because the Chunin exams are starting up soon, and since it's in Konoha this time, I intend to let your first taste of the Exams be on home soil. It's much easier this way." Asuma said, leaning against a tree and taking a puff of his deathstick.

And indeed it was true. Due to negotiations taking far, far longer than they should have, the Chunin exams had been delayed a lot longer than expected. Even now, a few of the minor countries weren't participating, but a year was too long for the major countries to have gone without their entertainment. The customers were getting restless, thinking that the shinobi were becoming weak. Business had started to slow down, and that was something the larger nations could not afford. So, they decided, they were going ahead with the Chunin exams, whether the minor nations wanted to participate or not.

Of course, the prospect of not showing off their ninja, while others did, and looking weak had promptly caused the majority of the minor countries to agree to send their ninja along to participate.

All politics behind the Chunin exams sorted, the Hokage had decided to one day, exactly two months before the exams were scheduled to begin, to call in all of his Jounin-sensei to inform them of this fact. Normally, he would only allow one month for the Gennin teams to prepare, but this year was special. The Gennin he wanted most in the exams was a special case, and he wanted the boy to have a full squad for the exams, at the least.

-_**Flashback-**_

_Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his oaken desk, puffing on his pipe. Before him, stood the legion of Jounin that had a Gennin team, that had taken up the honourable role of teaching the next generation. They were a bit confused though, by their calculation, the Chunin exams weren't supposed to start until 2 months later. They were Jounin, and even though they weren't expressly told when the exams were starting, they were well informed._

_"As most of you already know, the Chunin exams are coming around to Konoha this time around, and it is set to start two months from now. Usually, I would only allow a month for the Gennin to get prepared, but there is a special case this year." The Hokage sat in his high backed chair, still smoking his pipe in an important meeting._

_Kakashi and Gai raised eyebrows. Special case? As far as they were aware, the only special cases around was Sasuke, with him being the last Uchiha and all, but that wasn't any reason to give _all_ the Gennin extra time to train. Unless…_

"_It's about Naruto, isn't it?" Kisame asked, looking as jolly as ever, with his standard Konoha Jounin outfit. He had recently taken to wearing a larger size, his old ones were too stuffy for his tastes, and it made his gills feel weird._

"_Yes, with him being in a squad on his own, I'm afraid we may have some problems. And I'm sure, knowing him, he wouldn't want to forego an opportunity to finally show off what he is made off." The Sandaime smirked a little at that. He had been monitoring Naruto's activities for a while now, through the use of his crystal ball, and had a fairly good idea about _exactly_ what the boy was capable of. Certainly, no Chunin would be touching a hair on his head any time soon._

"_Hmm, so what do you have planned for him, Hokage-sama?" Kisame asked. He was appreciative of one thing, and that was that the Hokage was a lot more comfortable to be around. God knows he hated the Mizukage, the guy was far too uptight for anyone's good._

"_I was thinking of placing him with a temporary squad, to help him through the first parts of the exam. I have a team in mind, and they are ready to accept him into their ranks as soon as they are given the order." The Sandaime paused, taking the time to take another long drag from his pipe. "The decision is up to you though, since it would mean you would temporarily have to give over the command of your Gennin to anther Jounin for the duration of the Exams."_

_Kisame made no pretence of contemplating on the notion. "Absolutely not. I refuse to hand him over to another Jounin, he is far to skilled a Gennin for me to just hand him over to someone else." More than a few eyebrows rose at that comment. Naruto Uzumaki, skilled? Blasphemy. The boy had barely scraped through the Academy on nothing but luck._

_Kurenai didn't believe a word of it. "_What is it with males and their egos?"_ She mentally shook her head. "No offense, Kisame, but I am sure that Uzumaki hasn't gotten good enough in a year and a half that he could take on the Chunin exams alone. There is no need to bluff to feed your ego."_

_Kisame just stood there silently for a while, raising his eyebrows and looking at Kurenai inquisitively. "Huh … so what I heard was true. You are a guy-hater, aren't you?" Kurenai glared daggers at him._

"_I am sure you wouldn't have the same confidence in your student, had it been a kunoichi." Kisame shrugged._

"Can't be bothered._" Kisame thought. "I suggest we just get along with the nominations as normal. Naruto will be perfectly fine on being treated as a fully manned team. I am sure he will do just fine."_

"_Well, it's your decision, and I will respect that, since you know the boy's strength the best," "_And Itachi,_" Sarutobi added mentally. He was worried about Naruto, but he couldn't interfere in the situation. It was Kisame's decision as a Jounin-sensei. Taking one final puff, he put his trusty pipe down on his desk._

"_Alright, let's get on with it. Starting with the Rookie teams, begin stating whether or not you want to nominate your team for the Chunin Exams."_

"_I, Kakashi Hatake, Jounin-sensei of team 7, consisting of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Zaraki Kenpachi, hereby nominate them for the Chunin exams." The proclamation was met with surprised gasps, though many expected this to happen due to Sasuke being on the team._

"_I, Asuma Sarutobi, Jounin-sensei of team 10, consisting of Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi and Ino Yamanaka, hereby nominate them for the Chunin exams." More gasps, louder this time. Not one, but two rookie teams taking part in the Chunin exams?_

"Males and their egos," _Kurenai thought scathingly. "_Why do they have to show off? Fine, I guess I will nominate my team too. I'll show you that kunoichi can teach just as well as shinobi." _"I, Kurenai Yuhi, Jounin-sensei of team 8, consisting of Kiba Inzuka," Kurenai's lip curled slightly in disgust. She hated perverts, especially those that leered at their elders. "Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga," her face softened a little at the last name, "Hereby nominate them for the Chunin exams."_

_Iruka couldn't take it anymore._

"_Now hold on a moment! Those were all my students at the Academy, and I know better than anyone else that these kids aren't ready to be Chunin. There's no need to endanger their lives just so that you Jounin can show off in front of you peers." Iruka, now being the head instructor at the Academy, was allowed to sit in on the meeting due to the fact that his opinion on the Gennin teams was valued._

"_Iruka, understand that these Gennin are no longer under your jurisdiction. They are our responsibility, and you have no idea what we may have moulded them into. We have had almost two years to work with them," Kakashi looked as bored and as sleepy as ever. His small, orange book, however, was nowhere to be seen. "And frankly, this isn't your decision."_

"_Well, can we get on?" Silence met Kisame's question. "Good. I, Kisame Hoshigaki, Jounin-sense of team Kisame, consisting of Naruto Uzumaki, hereby nominate him for the Chunin exams."_

_Dead silence._

_-__**Flashback end-**_

**A/N: The next chapter may take a little long to come out. By long, I mean long by my ordinary standards, not my recent delay. That was rather unexpected.**

**The reason being that I am going to see if I can't do a little bit of work on my other fic that I have running, and also work on a new Naruto fic that I might be writing. I have recently encountered a lot of holes in my plot, and this story is rather lacking by my most recent standards, so I am seeking to write another story that fits better. This won't be discontinued, however.**

**Majin out!**


	25. Here it comes, The Chunin Exams (Part 2)

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Oh my God, I started this chapter so long ago, but I just couldn't finish. Sorry for the massive, massive unplanned delay, but my health ain't doing so good. I have pumped about 45 pills into myself in ... 6 days? Yeah, I am kinda dying over here.**

**Not much to say really. I lost a few more readers than I thought, but what irks me the most is that I have lost a couple of my regular reviewers. Oh well, the consequences of unwarranted disappearances.**

**Poll has now been closed; visit my profile to see the results.**

**On with the story!**

_**-Flashback continues-**_

_"What? I thought you were joking when you were talking to the Hokage about entering a single Gennin?" Kurenai was almost shouting in outrage, that was how great her surprise was. Entering a single Gennin as a fully fledged team? Was Kisame intent on killing his student? "Just because you are from another village doesn't mean you can disregard the safety of our Gennin. We don't torture kids in our village, unlike in yours!"_

_"Kurenai!" Asuma warned, speaking out of turn for the first time and putting a hand on Kurenai's arm. It served to calm her a little, as she took the time to notice her audience and look around her. Everyone was staring at the spectacle._

_"Just so you know, I was never fond of the Mizukage. Nor was I fond of the bullshit schemes he came up with for the Academy students and the Gennin. In fact, if the bastard wasn't so goddamn powerful, I would have put my sword through his skull a long time ago. Even then, I tried a few times." Kisame's eyes glazed over a little, remembering old times. He had a lot of things to think back to, he had an eventful life as a ninja. "And as far as Naruto goes, I ain't tryna get him killed. If you guys are so damn sure that Naruto is too weak to compete, then just let him compete and pit your Gennin against him. You know what? I don't even mind if you guys fight him yourself, you won't win against him as he is now."_

_"Oi, Kisame, that's enough. I know you have confidence in your student, but that's going too far," Kakashi said, trying to play the peacemaker in the little argument. Frankly, he didn't want to show such a shameful side of the Jounin in front of the Hokage. For his own part, the Hokage just sat back and watched as the commotion took place, a small smile on his face._

_"No Kakashi, I don't think you understand," he turned towards them, a ghostly look on his gilled face. "You guys wasted real talent. What is with you lot, running after a barely above average Gennin like Sasuke Uchiha, as if he is God's gift to the shinobi world? You think that's talent?"_

_"Hey! Don't come from another village and start judging us on which of our Gennin are strong and not. And what makes you think that damn failure of a Gennin has any talent? He never got anywhere in the Academy, he was the damn dead last! That was the entire reason you got stuck with him in the first place. And Sasuke Uchiha was the best, he is the last of the Uchiha line, the last one with the Sharingan!" Some random Jounin defended the pride of the Uchiha from the back of the room. He couldn't be seen, but he sounded distinctly male and had a rather deep voice, and he certainly had the ability to make himself heard._

_"Heh, you guys are really hung up on the fact that I'm from Mizu, aren't you?" Some shouts of "Damn straight!" could be heard, though no individual speaker was seen. Kisame snorted. "I'll tell you something now. You idiots from the Leaf don't know how to judge a kid for talent. I've seen Naruto, and I have seen that Hinata girl you idiots call failure. You fools, those are the two strongest Gennin that came out of this village."_

_He looked over at the Hokage, and his face took on a dreamy quality. "Old man, I know how you keep an eye on Naruto's progress through that Crystal Ball of yours, but don't think you know anything. What you saw was nothing, just a shadow of what he can do." He walked slowly towards the open window behind the Hokage. "I'll tell you. Naruto ... that gaki is a complete monster. Even if it was you that fought him, I doubt you'd walk out in one piece." And with that, Kisame was gone from the room. However, a ghostly voice could still be heard, muttering. "That is ... if you walk out at all."_

_All the Jounin paled a little at that, and the Hokage looked surprised. Had Kisame just suggested that a Kage couldn't survive a fight against a mere Gennin? A Kage so powerful that he survived long enough to be called one of the Great Four of the Old World, no less._

_"Did he seriously suggest ... that a Gennin was strong enough ... to kill -to KILL- Hokage-sama? I understand that he is new to the village and all, but to be making that kind of remarks..." Asuma trailed off, not wanting to voice his thoughts, lest they have any negative repercussions. Kisame was one of their comrades now, after all._

_"No, I think it might be wise to heed the man's words," Gai said, looking sombre for the first time in a long time, and not shouting. Many people were shocked to have heard Gai talk at a normal volume for the first time in their lives, though Kakashi wasn't one of those. They had a long history together, and he had known Gai long enough to have heard him talk normally before. "Kakashi and I are strong in our own rights, strongest Jounin in Konohagakure right now, some would say, but as hard to imagine as it is, Kisame Hoshigaki isn't a man we can match yet. It would be unwise to ignore the words of a man so great."_

_"So what are you suggesting Gai? That there is a second Itachi among us?" Kurenai asked, sounding as if she was almost ridiculing Gai. "Come on now, you don't think there is somebody that insanely talented in the village. People like Itachi aren't born everyday you know."_

_Kakashi turned his head toward Kurenai, coming to the aid of his old friend. "You would do well not to question your elders so much, rookie," he was almost sneering at her now, it was obvious even through his mask. Asuma looked a little annoyed, but he didn't react outwardly. Kurenai needed to face her own enemies. "When people live on the battlefield for as long as Gai and I have, we develop something called instinct. I don't know about Gai, but right now, my instincts are screaming at me to be wary. And the idea of a second Itachi isn't so far fetched, there is an insanely talented one in every generation of Konoha. Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Sasuke Sarutobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Minato Namikaze, Sakumo Hatake, Kakashi Hatake, Maito Gai, Itachi Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha; Konoha is famous for producing monster after monster. Maybe this time, it was Naruto and not Sasuke."_

_"Well, whatever it is, Naruto has been entered in the Chunin exams, along with all the other nominees so far. Let's carry on," the authorative and old voice of the Hokage broke through the rabble, and they became organised once again, their argument long forgotten._

_**-Flashback end-**_

Naruto was resting at the base of a large oak tree, balancing a senbon on his right index finger with his Chakra and trying to make it levitate once in a while. He seemed to be doing well, with the senbon never wavering more than a few milimeters, until Kisame dropped down in front of him from a branch above him. Naruto lost his concentration and the senbon fell to the side.

"So, how did the Exam meeting go?" Naruto asked, looking up from his spot on the floor. He was rather comfortable there, it had gotten quite warm in the few hours that he had spent sitting there and working on his Chakra control.

"Pretty decent. The idiots kept barking about how I was from Mizu and didn't give a shit if Konoha Gennin died, after I nominated you. It was a pain in the ass, but I got you into the Exams somehow." It was a little white lie from Kisame. He wasn't given a confirmation from anyone as to whether Naruto was actually allowed to participate or not, but he assumed that the Hokage would allow him to compete. "Oh yeah, they went completely bonkers when I said that you were strong enough to take on any of the Gennin teams, even their Sensei."

"Seriously? Now why would you go and do that?" Naruto asked, sounding whiny and dejected. He had worked so hard!

"Huh? What do you mean?" Kisame asked, confused. He as often confused around his pupil. It wasn't his fault! Naruto was a complicated kid, and even Itachi became puzzled on more than a few occasions.

"I worked so hard, spent bloody YEARS trying to get them to drop their guard. I had to work so hard to act weak so that they would underestimate me. Now you just went and blew it," Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, huffed once and closed his eyes.

"Well too bad. I just went and said that if you fought the Hokage now, I wasn't sure if the old fart would walk out alive." The teacher followed in the student's example and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You did what! You IDIOT! You completely blew it for me. And who the fuck told you to go mouthin' about how strong I was? Dammit, I wanted to keep this shit under wraps until the finals... You can come out now Hinata." Naruto opened his eyes and looked behind him, to see a lavender haired beauty walking out from behind the tree.

"What are you guys arguing about now? I just heard the colourful vocabulary, so I decided to stay hidden for a while." Hinata said, offering a small wave as a greeting. She sat down next to Naruto, not close enough to be considered intimate, but close enough to make it seem as if they were good friends.

"Yeah, well you should have known you couldn't stay hidden. Idiot Kisame just went ahead and blabbed about how strong I was to the other Jounin-" Naruto was promptly interrupted.

"Hey, no reason to make yourself seem important. You weren't the only one I talked about. Hinata would feel lonely if you were the only one I bragged about, right?" Kisame winked at Hinata, who surprising did not instantly turn tomato red. Odd.

"You bleeding retard! Not only did you blab about me, but you went ahead and bollocksed up Hinata's cover too? Dammit, I can work without the element of surprise, but Hinata isn't strong enough to do that yet!" Naruto was seething by now. He almost felt like going up to Kisame and whacking him across the face.

"Now, now, no need to be violent," Hinata said, playing her practiced role as peacemaker. She had been doing that since she had started practicing with Naruto and Kisame in her spare time, some three months ago. Her team was most professional, so they only had scheduled training sessions, and they weren't all that long, so she had plenty time left over for private tutoring from Kisame.

That was a funny tale, that. She was originally just stalking Naruto as a force of habit, but had wound up getting caught once he had started training and Hinata had gotten too close. Since Naruto had known about her dilemma with her father, and his condition that she either perform better than Neji or risk being branded with the Caged Bird Seal, Naruto had somehow roped her into training with them. Seeing how quickly Hinata improved once she had a teacher that was willing to encourage her and be a little patient with her, and a training dummy that was willing to take endless amount of hits and fight back accordingly, they had decided that Hinata's training with Naruto would be unofficial but permanent.

She wasn't a monster with endless amount of talent like Naruto, nor did she have a totally overpowered Doujutsu or an overpowered beast inside her to provide her with Chakra whenever she needed it, but she was strong. She hadn't gotten as strong as Naruto, but she could certainly hold her own against more than one Chunin at once. She was also certain she would utterly destroy Neji at the Chunin exams if her progress continued.

"Well, what's done is done. What matters now is that we sort out what we are gonna do when the actual exams roll around?" Naruto said, sitting back down on the floor next to Hinata. Weird, he didn't remember standing up. Kisame took a seat in front of them, with the Sun in his face. He didn't mind, though.

"Well, let's start with Naruto. His Chakra control is still a little shaky, but he has enough Chakra to use his Ninjutsu whenever the hell he bloodly pleases. He has a decent repertoire I guess, nothing to insanely flashy, but everything is practical and combat worthy. In terms of Taijutsu, he is a monster. We sorted his problem with moving too fast out. He goes a little slower, hits a lot harder, but now he is a shit ton more graceful and actually has a style to work with. Kenjutsu can be used, but isn't anything too great. Genjutsu is pretty much limited to dispelling, but you can cast a few if you're willing to show 'that'," Hinata had trained with them for a while now, but neither Naruto nor Kisame were ever willing to tell her what 'that' was. She didn't try to push too hard for it, but she would have liked to think she had gained the trust of her old crush. "Well actually, if you're willing to show that, you might as well just throw all the competition in the trash. Nothing short of all three Sannin coming together is gonna stop you if that thing comes out. Anyhow, carrying on. You have your family Jutsu, but they aren't combat viable, so might as well not use them. Holy shit kid, you might actually beat me if we fight seriously!" Naruto ignored that. He couldn't beat Kisame without the Kyubi or the Rinnegan ... yet.

"Hinata, you worked with me for a much shorter term, but you have improved your Jyuken a lot. I would even say you might be able to beat a Jounin of your Clan by the end of the Chunin exams. You have your family's Jutsu, and you are really good at using them. You can use minor Genjutsu and Ninjutsu, but mainly, you are a Taijutsu powerhouse. Get up close to them and please, you're trying to win, don't be afraid to hurt people. If you don't hurt them, you get hurt. Simple equation, right?" Kisame held his hands in front of him and shrugged, as if he was talking to a child, which he was. He didn't seem too condensending though.

"Don't worry about that. I think we might have beaten a bit too much bloodlust into her, she even scares me nowadays." Naruto chuckled when Hinata whacked him on the head with her knuckles. Hinata smiled a little too, showing that it was all in lighthearted fun.

"Yeah, well, that's the only advice I can give you right now. Naruto, keep working on your Chakra control. Hinata, keep working on getting your speed up and that secret move of yours that you're working on." Kisame said. He stood up to leave.

"What's this now, secret training? I want in ..." Naruto stood up to, preparing to walk over to the lake that was adjacent to the training grounds that he was assigned to. Nobody wanted to train anywhere near the loser dead-last, lest he steal their secrets, so he usually had a training ground all to himself. Knowing the Hokage personally also assured that he didn't get one of the rundown ones with crappy equipment.

"It's something for the Jyuken that I am developing. You can't know about it," Hinata stuck her tongue out at Naruto and ran away before he could do anything about her childish behaviour.

"She's slowly opening up, that one," Kisame said, looking at the fleeing back of the Hyuga princess. "Before you know it, she'll have you all wrapped around her finger."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto shouted. All he got in response was an empty space. Kisame had body flickered away.

-TT-

Timeskip (2 months)

Naruto stood in front of the imposing oak doors of the Academy classroom. He wasn't that nervous, but he could feel the killer intent from this side of the door!

"Don't worry so much kid, nothing in there can even scratch you." Kisame was behind him, pushing him forward. He wasn't required to be here, in fact Jounin were encouraged to view the events of the exams from the lounge, but he had decided to part with some words to boost his student's morale.

Naruto strode forward confidently. "_So it begins, the Chunin exams._"

**A/R: Okay, that went moderately well considering I am dying right now. I am gonna put this up now and see what kinda reactions I get in the morning. I don't really have much to say, so I am kinda rambling right now.**

**I got that chapter written pretty well, I was really motivated to write for some reason. Maybe that will continue and I will advance write a few chapters. I'm uploading this as the scheduled update for the 16th, so I think I will update again on the 23rd? Well, no guarantees.**

**Majin out.**


	26. Careful! Dangerous Encounters

**The Pathless Sage**

**A/R: Guess what? I was excited to get writing again, so you guys get your chapter 2 days early. And what's more? It's a mega large edition!**

**Okay, not bad. I haven't lost as many readers as I thought, got a really good review about everything wrong with this fic (thank you, I truly do appreciate the advice and I do plan on acting on them. It will just take a little while to fix the mistakes) and retained my favourite reviewers, so yay. Actually, I might be freaking out, or there might be something wrong with the graphs, but I think I got 9k+ hits in 2 days, which beats the previous record by an entire 4k ... this chapter might confirm my suspicions.**

**I got a couple reviews saying that it ended right when they thought it began ... well stop complaining, because you got your update!**

**Oh yeah, if you see more and more mistakes pop up, it's because I am no longer running a program with a built in spell checker, so the writing is much more raw.**

**"Speaking in Morse Code."**

**On with the story!**

Naruto walked through the doors. The first thing that struck him, surprisingly, wasn't the bucket load of killing intent that washed over him, but the general lack of noise in the room. If his calculations were correct, there should have been at least a few hundred Gennin, young and old alike, packed into one lecture room that was built to barely accomodate one hundred. It was like a graveyard inside the room.

The second thing that struck him was that he was late. Everyone was already there, excluding a few of the Rookie Nine, and already seated with their peers from their villages. When the blonde walked in, every single eye in the room rolled over to him. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but having that many people stare at him at once even creeped him out a little.

He ignored the looks he got, and went to sit down on the floor a little ways away. He preferred the corner, it was the best place to sit in a room full of hostiles. You could keep everyone in your field of view, and nobody could possibly get behind you. He loved his corner.

He watched quietly, as two of the other Rookie teams entered the room. They didn't speak to each other, only nodding to greet their former classmates. Hinata shared a little look with Naruto, but said nothing.

It was Sasuke's team that made the greatest commotion. Zaraki walked in front and center, with Sakura on his left and Sasuke on his right. The tall boy looked almost the same as he had the first time he walked into the Academy classroom on graduation day. The only difference to his appearance was that he was sporting a black eye patch on his right eye.

When he walked into the room, and felt the intense bloodlust directed his way, the spiky haired swordsman couldn't help but unleash some bloodlust of his own. It wasn't the full brunt of his demonic Chakra, and it felt somehow dulled to Naruto, but it was enough to warn some people. Others licked their lips in anticipation. Naruto only rolled his eyes at the display and stood up. He knew that if Sasuke walked into the room, it wouldn't be staying peaceful and quiet for much longer.

He was correct in assuming that. As soon as he walked through the door, he was fiercely glomped **[1]** by Ino Yamanaka, heir to the Yamanaka clan and a member of Team 10. Naruto walked up to them, but said nothing.

"Sasuke-kun, I missed you!" Ino squealed in that all too high voice of hers. She had her arms draped around his shoulders, her chest pressed against his back and her chin resting on his right shoulder. All in all, the blonde and the ravenette looked quite like a couple. If only Sasuke wasn't narrowing his eyes in obvious annoyance.

"Get off my Sasuke-kun, Ino-pig!" Sakura, also in a too high voice (far higher than Ino's, unfortunately), said, pointing quite aggressively at the other girl. It was no secret to anyone that these were the two biggest fangirls vying for Sasuke's interest, but it was also quite obvious that the boy in question had no interest (currently) in either.

"So troublesome ... so you guys are taking the test too?" Shikamaru Nara stood a little behind Ino, and Chouji Akimichi stood a little to his left. He was a pretty lazy guy, but don't let that demeanour fool you. The guy was a genius, pure and simple. Not the kind that learned things quickly, or became monstrously strong. No, he was the intelligent kind of genius.

"Yeah, we are," the one to respond wasn't anyone from Team 7, but from Kiba Inuzuka from Team 8. His team, like Team 7 with Zaraki, were flanking him from behind. Hinata shared a look with Naruto, who was currently standing behind the Nara, and that shifted everyone's attention towards him. "Great, so everyone from our graduating class is here?"

Naruto nodded and stepped forward a little. "Looks like it, and everyone seems to have gotten a lot stronger." To the others, bar Team 7, it was a surprise to see Naruto talk normally. There was no shouting of Hokage, no 'Believe it!' after every sentence and no squeaky high voice.

"Yeah, everyone but you," Kiba said in a mocking tone, despite the changed atmosphere around the Jinchuriki. Naruto intentionally kept a steady rein on his Chakra, as to not allow it to run amok or give away how strong he had really become. The room walls may not remain standing if he let go of the reins completely. "You still look like a pipsqueak that can't fight."

Naruto's old habits returned. "Oh yeah? Well you still need your pet to fight your battles!" It wasn't in his nature to boast, not anymore. As a ninja, he understood the need for secrecy, and secrecy was not something achieved through boasting. He had found out the hard way.

Shikamaru, like his father, didn't buy the facade of weakness. "Our Jounin-sensei told us some crazy things about you, Naruto. Apparently, your sensei was talking about how you could take on the Hokage now or something."

Hinata poked her fingers together, trying to keep up her end of the facade. Nobody knew that she was training with Kisame, at least nobody knew explicitly, and had no reason to suspect anything from her. Well, nobody normal had anything to suspect. "Naruto-kun is strong, but isn't it going a little too far to say that he could beat Hokage-sama?"

"We heard some things about you too, Hinata. Apparently, if Kisame-sensei is to be believed, you are pretty talented too." That was news to Kiba and Shino. Kurenai had told them of how Kisame had boasted, in front of all the Jounin-sensei, about his student, but she had made no mention of the shark-man making any comments about Hinata.

Hearing the name of one of their most notorious criminals, the Mizugakure Gennin perked up in their corner of the room. They whispered amongst themselves, but made no attempt to do anything.

Before the conversation could continue any further, they were rudely interrupted by a mild voice coming from behind Kiba.

"Keep it down you lot. You are attracting way too much attention, so I assume you're rookies?" It was a silver haired Gennin a few years older than them. He wore round spectacles and attire somewhat similar to Ino. He didn't look all that tough, with his skinny build and no visible muscles, but something about him radiated power.

"Yeah, so what?" Kiba was the brashest, and perhaps the rudest of them all. He replied with venom, despite the fact that the newcomer was wearing a Konoha forehead protector. They all turned to look at him.

"Well, attracting so much attention and making so much noise is a bad idea. You might get hurt," the Konoha Gennin, still without a known name, said. Something about him put Naruto on edge, and somehow the boy smelled of snakes and laboratory chemicals. "My name is Kabuto, I am a fellow Konoha Gennin taking the exams."

"Huh, you sound like you have been here before," having been the first to speak, Kiba had been wordlessly elected their spokesperson. Nobody else wanted to speak directly to the stranger, so he volunteered ... unwillingly.

"I have, this is my seventh time taking the test. Since they do two tests a year, this is my fourth year taking it." Kabuto said, pushing his glasses further up his nose, even though they hadn't slipped in the slightest. **[2] **

"Wow, you must suck," Kiba said, taking on his trademark mocking tone.

"Not really, it's just that the exams are really tough, especially in the later stages," was Kabuto's rebuttal. He didn't let it show on his face, but he was really tempted to teach the brat a lesson.

"So, you got any useful advice for us?" This time, it was Zaraki that spoke. He had lived on the streets for a long, long time and he had learned the value of information. The more information you had, the longer you lived. And if the information was scot free, that was just an added bonus. As such, Zaraki tried to get any and all information he could get his hands on.

"I guess you call it useful," Kabuto reached into his top. When he withdrew his hands, he was grasping a deck of what appeared to be playing cards. "These are my Ninja Info cards. They hold all my information I have collected over time. I have information on pretty much everyone here."

"What do you have on Zaraki Kenpachi and Naruto Uzumaki? Also, I would like to know anything you have on Gaara of the Sand Waterfall." This time, it was Sasuke that spoke up. Being around Naruto for so long had changed him a lot, but he still retained his competitive streak, and he wanted to know everything about the competition. Granted, he knew almost everything there was to know about Naruto and Zaraki (at least he thought he did), but he wanted to see if Kabuto had anything interesting.

"Well, alright," Kabuto didn't want to give away information. He treasured it, they were his babies. But he had a mission, and to complete that mission, he had to get as close to Sasuke Uchiha as possible. Not in a romantic way, of course, but he had to be someone Sasuke trusted explicitly. He took out three cards from the pile, and put away the rest.

"First off, Zaraki Kenpachi. His mission records are as follows: 24 D Ranks, 3 C Ranks, 0 B Ranks and an A Rank?" His voice jolted up a little at the end, not believing that a Gennin was capable of such a feat. "His teammates are Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. He is average and both Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, but his Taijutsu is exceptional. His Kenjutsu is through the roof!"

"Next is Gaara of the Sand Waterfall. His mission records are: no D Ranks, 9 C Ranks, 8 B Ranks and 14 A Ranks?" This was even more surprising. Who were these monstrous Gennin? He didn't remember putting those cards. "His teammates are Temari of the Desert Breeze and Kankuro of the Hidden Puppets. His Ninjutsu is insane, no sign of Genjutsu or Taijutsu though. He can control sand and apparently, has never gotten hurt."

"Lastly, Naruto Uzumaki. His missions record ... oh brother. Where are these monsters popping up from? 9984 D Ranks, 0 C Ranks, 0 B Ranks and an A Rank." This was ridiculous. Why was he not aware of Konoha having such monsters as Gennin? And Suna too? "He has no teammates, apparently, and the information on his abilities aren't up to date. All I have is that he was the dead last of his graduating class and that his ability with anything is mediocre at best. He is, however, noted to have near infinite amounts of Chakra and he is the student of Kisame Hoshigaki."

"Well, that was useful," Sasuke said, not really paying attention to the older boy. That was information he already knew, and was completely useless

Just then, an explosion at the front of the classroom stopped all activity in the room.

-TT-

"_Wow, how are you supposed to answer this shit? Wait, are you even supposed to be able to calculate this accurately without a calculator?_" Naruto was becoming more and more skeptical of the integrity of this test as time passed by. It didn't add up. Insane equations that nobody except genius mathematicians could work out? A stipulation where you needed to cheat multiple times to get kicked out? "_Complete bullshit. You have to cheat to get passed this._"

He looked around the room. He had no viable ways to cheat, without getting caught. He could activate his Rinnegan, and try to look around to see if he could see any answers on anyone else's paper, but he didn't want to use his emergency trump card on anything so stupid. It was a complete waste.

Then he looked to his right, and had an epiphany. He quickly wrote something down on the bottom right edge of his paper, and thanked God that he was using a pencil to write and had a rubber. He tapped the girl next to him on the back of the hand once, to gain her attention.

Hinata didn't speak, but did look at him questioningly. In response, the blonde looked down towards his paper. The lavender haired princess saw the note at the bottom of his page, and looked even more confused.

Her confusion was replaced by a bright red blush, however, when she felt Naruto's hand on hers. At first, she didn't understand what the tapping on the back of her hand meant, but remembering the note on the bottom of Naruto's test paper, she understood everything. A look of realisation dawned on her face.

"**Finally getting the messages?**" Naruto said. Well, he didn't actually say anything, he tapped out the message on her hand in morse code. He didn't want to get caught by anyone, and he didn't know if talking to other contestants counted as one of their opportunities to cheat.

Hinata took her hand from beneath Naruto's, put it on top of his and proceeded to tap out her own message. "**Yes. This idea was complete genius, but why are you talking in a test? I thought we weren't supposed to cheat?**" It didn't take long for them to tap out messages to each other, since they had been taught morse code back in the Academy, and they were surprisingly the two best transmitters in their class.

"**Yea, thing is: the cheating part was a lie. There is no way in hell we can pass this test without cheating. The problem is though, I don't have a way of actually cheating,**" Naruto looked a little concerned, but Hinata couldn't tell. He was still looking at his test paper, and so was Hinata, to uphold their facade of pondering over the contents of the test. They didn't want anyone to know they were cheating, after all.

"**So, how do you want me to go about this?**" Hinata asked, looking slightly confused. She could use her Byakugan, but wouldn't that be a dead giveaway? The veins around her temple were far too easy to notice when she had her Byakugan active.

"**I suppose you can activate your Byakugan without any handseals?**" Hinata tapped out an affirmative. "**Good. Pretend you can't figure out the test, and put your head down on the table. That way, my body will be blocking the examiners line of vision to your head, if I just lean over my paper a little. Once your head is down, activate your Byakugan and tap out the answers to me. Afterwards, I can tap the answers back to you, and we can both finish the test.**"

"**But what are we going to do for the answers? What if there is no one here that can answer the questions?**" There was a nervous tremble to her hands as she tapped out the message, conveying her doubt to her blonde friend.

"**We don't have that problem. Even if there aren't people planted here with the answers, we have Shikamaru. He has a shit ton of IQ cramped in his head, I know he can do these equations.**" Again, Hinata tapped out an affirmative.

They put their plan into action, and a little timely distraction from one of the Suna Gennin going to the toilet gave them perfect cover to begin their operations.

As it turned out, Shikamaru did have the answers. Hinata trusted her former classmate's ability to answer questions, but she did a thorough check of the classroom to see if there were any plants with the answers. There were two, and they had the exact same answer as Shikamaru. It all went perfectly.

-TT-

"Alright maggots, time is up. Put your damn pencils down and listen up," everyone did as the bear of an examiner told them to. Ibiki was large man, and combined with the scars all over his face, looked rather intimidating. "You answered nine written questions, now there is a tenth one. Listen up, 'cause I'll only say this once. The last question has some special stipulations."

Everyone paid rapt attention to the man at the front of the classroom. They had come this far, they weren't going to drop out now. "Rule number one: you get a choice as to whether you want to take this question or not. Rule number two: your decision affects your teammates. Rule number three: if you refuse to take this question, both you and your teammates will fail this test." A loud uproarious shout went through the room.

"Of course we are going to take the question, then!" One Suna Gennin, the same one that went to the toilet earlier, said.

"Shut up and listen, dumbass. I have more rules to tell you, and they'll explain why you might wanna quit. Rule number four: if you do take this question and fail to answer it correctly, you will be banned from taking the Chunin exams ever again. Essentially, you will be a Gennin for the rest of your life."

A tense silence followed the last rule. That was a large step to take, especially if the question was going to be as tough as the last ones. Hinata, among others, became doubtful and her resolve started to waver.

Then one Konoha Gennin gave up, and his entire time was escorted out of the room. The first quitter started an entire avalanche of withdrawals. Gennin of all shapes and sizes left the room left, right and center, from every village. As Konoha had the largest amount of participators, they naturally had the largest amount of failures. When no more Gennin left their seat or raised their hand, Ibiki spoke up again.

"Well, doesn't anyone else want to quit?" That comment nearly drove Hinata off the edge, and she would have raised her hand if Naruto hadn't put his over her's.

"**Hinata, don't quit. It's a trick, don't be fooled. Sit still, and let the weak of resolve quit.**" Naruto tapped out in morse code. He would have tapped out a more encouraging message, had he not been distracted by a rough voice.

"Tch, if you kiddies are scared of a question, then get the hell out. I ain't scared of something that can't hurt me, in fact, I wouldn't be scared even if it could hurt me. So gimme that question so I can get my ass outta here and take the rest of the exam." Zaraki punctuated his remark by plopping his feet on his desk, on top of his test paper.

"Well, we got a tough guy here, have we?" Ibiki grinned a menacing, predatory grin. "_Tch, that brat just inspired the rest of them to stay. No way in hell they are quitting now._" He took a look around the room, and did a quick head count. "_24 teams? I guess I'll let them pass._"

"Well, alright you maggots. Since you all have the balls to stay and take the question," he saw some of the girls in the audience cringe at that remark. "I guess you all pass."

**"WHAT?"** A surprised shout went through the room. Even Naruto was surprised. He expected there to actually be a question, just to thin out the crowd a little more. Before anyone could say anymore, though, a window on the side exploded in a shower of debris and glass, and a woman flew in through it.

The woman stood at the front of the classroom, looking at the number of contestants that still remained. "Ibiki, you must be going soft. You let 72 of them pass?" She shrugged. "Well, whatever. I am Anko Mitarashi. By the end of my test, there will be less than half of you still standing. Come to Training Ground 44 in ... an hour." With that, she vanished and the entirety of the class stumbled to get to wherever Training Ground 44 was before time ran out.

-TT-

Naruto stood alone in front of the looming, fenced off forest in front of him. The Gennin around him were milling about slowly, sticking together with their teams. They were now awaiting the beginning of the next test, having already received a full rundown of what the next test entailed and a scroll to go with it.

Naruto had, funnily enough, received the Heaven scroll. It would have been ironic if he was still as dumb and idiotic as he used to be. Still, it brought a wry grin to his whiskered face.

He looked around. Every team had already hidden their scrolls before even leaving the tent, so nobody knew what scroll anyone else had. That way, nobody would be targeted before the test even began.

Well, that wasn't quite true. From where Naruto was, he could see every eye looking at him hungrily. He was the only one taking the test without any teammates, and everyone was looking at him like a piece of meat. They all wanted to take him out, and as fast as possible. If he had the correct scroll for them, which was a 50% chance, then that was just an added bonus. Of course, having an extra scroll as a bargaining chip wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Naruto sighed. It seemed that if he wanted to survive, at least without giving too much away, then he had to team up with someone. He looked around for a team to partner up with, but sighed at the limited choice. He didn't know anyone except for the Rookie Nine, and everyone among them had a reason to decline him.

Sasuke and Zaraki would be the most likely to accept him, since they were the only ones even remotely aware of his strength. Well apart from Hinata, but that was another story. But Team 7 had Sakura, and she hated his guts. Even if she didn't hold much sway over the overall team dynamics, Zaraki and Sasuke were bound to consider themselves strong enough to get through on their own.

Shikamaru's team was the most likely to accept him amongst them, but there was the problem of Ino. She hated him too, perhaps even more strongly than Sakura did. And that wasn't even mentioning the amount of risk he would put his secrets under if he was around Shikamaru for too long.

His only choice was Team 8. Hinata was his friend, she knew his strength and held some authority over her teammates, as the voice of reason. Shino was also there, who would consider the logical advantage of having an extra member. Kiba would be a problem, since he was a complete egotistic bastard, but that was something Naruto was going to have to deal with.

Sighing once again, he moved towards them slowly. He didn't want to do this, but if he was going to keep any amount of his abilities secret, and everyone off his back, this was the best course of action. When he got close enough to be in hearing range, he called out to them and waved.

"Hey Hinata, is it okay if I join your team?" Naruto asked, sounding as cheerful as possible. He didn't want to give away his changed personality too quickly.

"It's fine by me, but why would you want to join us?" Hinata asked, playing along with Naruto's act. There was no reason for Naruto to act like his old self, unless he had something planned.

"And why would we want a dobe like you tagging along with us? You'll only slow us down," Kiba's voice was loud, but nobody paid any attention to them. Everyone else was taking care of their own last minute preparations.

"Because the more the merrier? Look, everyone is looking at me like I am a piece of meat to be taken down, so I was wondering if I could tag along with you guys for some protection?" Naruto said, doing his best impression of a puppy.

Before Kiba could say anything more, Shino spoke up. "You can come with us, Naruto-san. Why? Because it is more logical to travel in a larger group." Though he agreed with Shino, and was grateful to him for stepping, something gave him the creeps. It was as if **[3]** if he could see Shino's eyes, they would hold a look he really wouldn't like.

-TT-

Naruto and his entourage were in a situation they would rather not be in. Mizu shinobi weren't the most forgiving, and being stuck with two teams of them wasn't their idea of having a seamless exam.

"Alright kiddies, either cough up all your scrolls, or we'll leave here with nothing but corpses," One of them, apparently the leader of one of the teams, said. He was a sleek looking man, perhaps in his twenties. Like all the other Mizu contestants, they were wearing a beige wetsuit and a rebreather on their faces.

Kiba's first reaction was to answer back to them, to claim that they weren't going to back down from a challenge, no matter how difficult it was. However, Shino laying a hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks, and made him reconsider. Looking to the side, he was surprised to see a calm and composed look on Naruto's face. Weird, he thought the blonde would be the first one to freak out at the threat.

The leader of the Mizu contingent took off his rebreather, and his face took on a lecherous look. "Actually, we'll kill all you three guys. That girl there with the creepy eyes is a little too pleasant on the eyes to just kill off without having some fun first." As if to prove his point, he moved forward and tried to grope Hinata.

Shouting in outrage, Kiba tried to intercept, but was thrown back by the larger man. Shino stayed composed, though on the inside he was raging. Hinata tried to struggle in the man's grasp, but was too weak, physically, to break free.

Naruto saw red and he tilted his head down, hiding his eyes from view. "I suggest you take your hands off her," he took his sword off his back and moved it to his hip. "That is, if you want to keep that hand attached to the rest of your body."

"Hah? You think a little pipsqueak like you can act tough-?" The man's words were cut off by a shrill cry of pain. Naruto had chopped his hand off.

"I told you, if you valued your hand, you would have taken it off Hinata." He promptly kicked the Mizu Gennin back towards his team. One of them, a female by the looks of it, cradled him in her arms. The rest of them stayed quiet, but slipped into their battle positions. "You okay Hinata?"

"Yes, I'm fine." She answered. Her eyes hardened, and her face took on a look of determination.

"Can you fight?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," was her short reply.

"Kiba, Shino, if you don't mind, I would like for you to stand back." Naruto said, standing up straight and facing their enemies.

"What do you mean, you'd like us to stay out of the fight? No way in hell. You forget, it was out teammate that got groped, you retard." Kiba was on the brink of attacking Naruto, rather than the enemies in front of them.

Naruto turned his head and glared at Kiba. "You misunderstood. I meant stay the fuck out of the fight if you know what's good for you."

Again, Kiba was stopped from attacking by Shino. He hadn't said anything yet, but the bug-boy had a good idea as to what was going on. "Don't worry, we won't interfere. Why? Because I think you have a personal stake in this fight."

"Good, at least Shino has some common sense," Naruto then turned towards Hinata. "Do you want to take the bastard's head, or should I do the honours?"

He didn't get an answer from Hinata, because she was beaten to the punch by the female that was holding the enemy leader to her chest. "You think you brats can beat us in a fight? A two on six fight, no less?"

Hinata's face took on an uncharacteristic, sadistic grin. "No, this won't be a fight," she sped towards the fallen Gennin in a zigzag pattern, and Naruto followed behind her, going in the opposite direction. Their run created a string of connected diamond shapes.

"This will be an execution!" Naruto finished for her, as he lobbed off the head of the girl holding the enemy leader. The sudden increase in their speed at the end of their run surprised the other Gennin, and they tried to fall back. Alas, Hinata was already on them.

She ran through their ranks like a typhoon, hitting everyone she came across with as many Jyuken strikes as she could. Naruto followed in her wake, ripping apart any remnants of Hinata's preliminary charge.

By the end of their enraged onslaught, the two teams of Mizu Gennin looked like bloodied confetti.

-TT-

Elsewhere, Team 7 were having a much harder time with one foe than Naruto and Hinata did with six. It was a feminine looking Kusa Gennin with long hair and a farmer hat. He was currently fighting Sasuke, while Sakura was hiding behind a tree observing the fight and Zaraki was nowhere to be seen.

"You made a good decision, Sasuke-kun. Often, the way to escape a predator is to offer it a better prey," the man said, as he stood atop a tree branch. Sasuke was standing on another branch a little ways away, holding a Heaven scroll in front of him.

"Just take the scroll, but leave my team and I alone," Sasuke said, throwing the scroll towards the other ninja. The scroll, however, didn't make it to the other side as it was snatched out of the air by a fast moving blur.

"You moron, it's obvious you've never lived on the streets. You know what the number one rule of living on the streets is? If you see a predator bigger than you, don't give it anything it wants," Zaraki said, holding the thrown Heaven scroll in his hand. He was standing in between both combatants and a little ways to the right of Sasuke.

"You idiot! Are you trying to get us all killed?" Sasuke shouted in outrage, pointing at Zaraki. Said spiky haired boy rose an eyebrow at the unusual behaviour of the Uchiha, but said nothing about it.

"Do you know why that is the foremost rule of the streets, Sasuke? Because if you give the predator what it wants without a fight, it'll have the strength to fight for even more. You will lose more than you would have if you hadn't just given up what it wanted," Zaraki said sagely.

Sasuke didn't calm down at all. "What are you prattling on about you moron?"

"I'm ain't the moron, you are. D'ya think that giving him a measly scroll is gonna stop him from killing us? If he wants to kill us, he'll do it anyway, scroll or not. If he has the ability to kill us, why would giving him a damn scroll stop him from doing it anyway? Is there a fucking all-binding contract out there that would stop him from killing us?" Zaraki's rant did nothing to dissuade the Uchiha. When he was about to say more about why they should hand over the scroll, Sakura ran up to him and slapped him.

Sakura Haruno slapped Sasuke Uchiha.

-TT-

Having searched the Mizu Gennin and taken all their equipment, including their two Earth scrolls, Naruto and his group were on their way to the tower. He was hoping that having not been questioned yet meant he had gotten away with it, but alas, no such luck.

"Naruto-san, now that we have nothing to do but travel, would it be okay if I asked you some questions?" Shino asked, looking as stoic as ever and his voice betraying nothing. In a way, Shino was worse than Shikamaru. What Shikamaru had in intelligence, he made up for it with his laziness. Shino had no such impediments, in fact, some would even say the boy was as knowledge hungry as anyone was ever likely to get.

Seeing where this was going, Naruto only nodded his head in acceptance. He wasn't going to get away with it, but he'd be damned if he let this get out. He'd have to make sure to keep the leak as small as possible, and Shino was the perfect candidate for that purpose. Kiba was not, but he would have to think something up for that.

"Just how strong are you, really?" Naruto almost broke out in joyous dance. He had forgotten that Hinata already knew about his secrets, and was happy to keep them a secret from everyone else. Shino didn't see anything more than just some rudimentary Kenjutsu skills, and didn't even see anything that would allude to him being as good as he actually was.

"Truth be told, I haven't gotten that much stronger than I was in the Academy. Sure, I got a little faster and learned some stuff with the sword, but that's about as far as my skills improved. Some simple Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, too. Most of my time was spent studying and developing my mind for actual Ninja duty. That's why I am talking to you normally now, and not screaming and shouting like a moron. It's also the reason as to why I no longer wear that abominable jumpsuit." Naruto said, his face the perfect picture of stoicism. If his appearance didn't look so starkly different, one could mistake him for an Aburame.

Shino nodded in acceptance. "Hah! I knew all that shit your sensei talked about you was just trash! There was no way in hell that you got strong enough to take all of us out at once!" Kiba said, more to assure himself than anything, though it wasn't a conscious thing.

"_Yes, you idiot, believe that for as long as you can._" Naruto thought.

"And Hinata, would you mind telling us when you got that strong?" Shino asked, his voice still level and polite, though his eyebrows rose a little. As Hinata knew from past experience, that was equivalent to mild shock in Aburame terms. And why wouldn't he be shocked? His own teammate had hidden her strength from them.

"Eh … well, I have been doing some extra training with Kisame-sensei and Naruto-kun," Hinata said, reverting back to her shy personality. "They really helped me get over my weaknesses and helped me grow."

Again, Shino nodded in acceptance. "And what was with that attitude change? Man, I haven't seen anything like that since that time I saw my mum fighting!" Kiba said, jumping into the conversation.

Naruto answered for his friend. "I doubt there is anyone in the world that can hang around with Kisame Hoshigaki and not become at least a little blood thirsty. And he did try to bring Hinata out of her shell. Except, his way of doing it was to make her beat on me until she had gotten over her fear of hurting people, rather than hurting her until she got over her fear of hurting others."

Kiba only laughed at his expense.

-TT-

For a second, Sasuke blabbered in shock. What the hell had just happened? "What … was that for?" He asked a little uncertainly. What kind of nightmare was this? Was it even possible for one of his … fangirls to do anything to hurt him?

"Who are you?" Sakura asked, tears streaming down her face. "The coward in front of me isn't my Sasuke-kun, this isn't the Sasuke-kun I know. What happened to you?"

"Yeah, what has gotten into ya? First sign of trouble and you go all chicken? If you're scared of this little Gennin, what the hell would you do if you went and fought Itachi now?" Sasuke flinched.

Looking at the smiling Gennin in front of him, Sasuke hardened his resolve. He was an Uchiha, and Uchiha didn't run away. Seeing the newfound resolve in Sasuke's Sharingan eyes, the Kusa Gennin let out an amused laugh.

"You would do well to assume nothing. Who said I am any less dangerous than Itachi?" As he said this, he began to feel off the skin from his face, revealing a chalk white, pasty face underneath.

-TT-

**A/R: Wow, this chapter is a monster in comparison to the other chapters. Sheesh this thing is big. Anyhow, I would appreciate it a lot if you left a review. It doesn't take long and motivates me to write. Who knows, if the numbers surprise me, I might be motivated enough to write something this big again.**

**Sorry if it was a little hard to keep up with the chapter, since I did skip around a little bit. I just wanted to get to the meat of the arc as quickly as possible, and you guys have probably read some of the generic Chunin exam stuff so many times, you guys probably have four different variations completely memorised. I know I do.**

**[1]: I am quite aware Glomp isn't an actual word in the English dictionary, and it's usage may be unprofessional, but it just fit the context too well not to use.**

**[2]: I never have this problem in day to day life, but when I am playing sports, my glasses always slip down like two millimetres and it just annoys the shit out of me. Same thing with dirty glasses, I can't stand having any dust or water stains on my lenses.**

**[3]: Not a typo, it was intentional.**


	27. Orochimaru the Snake Sannin - Hostility?

**The Pathless Sage  
**

**EDIT: The previous nonsense with the jumbled writing was a formatting error caused by transferring the text from Google docs to here.**

**A/R: Been a while since I last updated, and that's because a) I have been busy with some school work and some tests that I had to devote some time to, b) I have been training like a madman. I have a badminton tournament coming up and the cricket season is almost upon us, and c) I am having problems with my keyboard. It's being an utter biatch. Maybe I should ask my brother to get a new one?  
**

**On with the story!  
**

Naruto tensed as he sensed a very familiar and a very large Chakra signature flare up close by. He didn't want to believe it, but it seemed like the snake was back, and he was up to his scheming ways if the violent energy being emitted was anything to go by.  
Of course, Kiba and Shino weren't as attuned to Chakra as he was, even Hinata wasn't, so of course, none of them noticed anything. Naruto discretely created a Shadow Clone in the shadows, and after a quick Kawarimi, he took off into the woods. No one saw anything suspicious, but Hinata did look a little worried.

-TT-

"You would do well to assume nothing. Who said I am any less dangerous than Itachi?" As he said this, he began to feel off the skin from his face, revealing a chalk white, pasty face underneath.

It took all her resolve for Sakura not to puke at the horrific sight, and Sasuke barely held his own stomach in. He wasn't any stranger to the gruesome, he was a ninja, but even he had his limits. And tearing your own face off was as far as he could go before he had to draw a line. Of course, Zaraki wasn't fazed in the slightest. He had seen that routine before, and knowing the man with that sickly face, that was nowhere near the goriest he could produce. After all, Orochimaru of the Sannin specialised in the horrific.

"Who are you?" Sasuke asked. He had never seen a Bingo Book in his life, but he had his suspicions. The only one he knew of in this world that had that shade of white as a skin colour was Orochimaru, but he didn't want to believe he was up against a man regarded as the best of his generation.

Again, the stranger only let out an amused laugh. Sasuke bristled. "What's so funny? I asked who you are, now answer me!" The stress of the situation was forcing back some of Sasuke's old, arrogant habits. It was a part of him, despite all the effort he had put into changing, and all the beatings he had taken at the hands of Naruto and Zaraki. It was mostly facetious, but a beating was a beating.

"My name is Orochimaru. I am here to give you a present." Orochimaru said, a sick grin plastered across his face.  
Sasuke knew he was going to regret it. He knew it. A present from someone like Orochimaru couldn't be a good thing, but he just couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth. "Fine then, just give me the damn present and get out of here!"

When he saw the fangs sticking out from a head attached to a rather long neck, he knew he was screwed. The man was too fast for him, even with his Sharingan. He had just blinked, and Orochimaru crossed well over a hundred feet of forest in all the time it took for him to open his eyes. And that was with just his neck!  
Luckily for him, Zaraki had reacted the instant he had heard the words coming out of the other boy's mouth. Was he trying to get himself killed?

Zaraki let the serrated edge of his blade rip through the man's neck without a second though. He wasn't adverse to killing people, but he at least had a delighted look on his face when he killed someone strong. There was none of that now, because he knew killing Orochimaru wouldn't be that simple. A beheading had never stopped that particular Sannin.

While it wasn't enough to put the man out of commission permanently, there certainly was enough time for them to put some distance between them again. Sasuke and Zaraki did just that.

"What's wrong Sasuke-kun? I thought you wanted my present?" Orochimaru asked, even as his head was reattached to his neck by black pythons.  
Sasuke looked on in abject horror. "There is no way I want a 'present' that involves you biting my neck!" Sakura would have screamed something about someone else trying to 'kiss' her Sasuke-kun, under normal circumstances, but it hardly seemed like the appropriate time to draw attention to herself. She didn't want to get killed, after all. Zaraki, for his part, just took off his eyepatch and put it into an unseen pocket in his trousers. His demonic Chakra flared out like usual, but it seemed more controlled somehow. Like violence under the surface that was waiting to burst out, rather than raw violence itself. It stopped the feeling of oppression from the Chakra from spreading out too far, so hopefully, the other teams wouldn't notice too much of a difference.

"Well, it doesn't matter if you want to or not, you are getting my present one way or another. Whether I have to use force or not is completely up to you..." Orochimaru settled into a more grounded stance, preparing himself for a battle of attrition.

-TT-

Naruto arrived on the scene just in the nick of time to see Sasuke get bitten on the neck by Orochimaru. Sakura was nowhere to be seen, presumably in hiding, fearing for her own life. It seemed the girl had grown a brain at the wrong time. Zaraki was a little ways away, his back draped across a thick tree branch. Sasuke's face was contorted in pain, even as Orochimaru's fangs left his skin.

"You will seek me out, Sasuke-kun. To seek power, the power to kill your brother, to restore your family name. You will come to me, and you will beg for my power." Orochimaru said, before preparing to leave. Naruto intervened.

Jumping down from his perch, he landed neatly between Sasuke and the Sannin. Said Sannin turned his head a little, but made no gesture of acknowledgement. "What have you done to him, you slimy bastard?" Naruto's voice held no fear, despite the calibre of shinobi that he was standing in front of. If he were a weaker man himself, he might have quivered in fear, but he knew that fear had no place in a battle between shinobi.

"Me?" Orochimaru's voice sounded innocent, almost innocent. It was sickening to hear such a tone come out of his mouth. "I just gave him a little present, that's all." Naruto's blood boiled. He knew all too well what that would mean, he had heard enough about the sick man's experiments to make a rather educated guess about what he had done. Naruto just hoped that his 'best friend' survived. Well, his only real friend. Zaraki and he were more like brothers in arms than friends. Their relationship was one of pure survival instincts, but that's a story for another time.

"Don't screw with me Orochimaru," Naruto's voice dripped with venom. It would have been obvious to a newborn that he was mad, very mad. "What are his chances of survival? If it's anything under 100%, I might decide to kill you."

Orochimaru only laughed, before exerting a hefty amount of his KI. Naruto shrugged it off. "Don't overestimate yourself, Gennin! You are still a century too young to take on me, let alone kill me!" Orochimaru would have said more, if not for the pain that shot up from his torso. Looking down, he confirmed his suspicions. There was a massive hole where his heart was supposed to be.

"Don't underestimate me, Sannin. I am not the same Gennin as Zaraki and Sasuke," there was a crater near where Naruto was standing before, formed by a set of weights that were thrown down haphazardly. He figured he could collect them later, and a few craters wouldn't cause any problems in a forest.  
"No, you are definitely overestimating yourself, Gennin," the voice came from behind him. Looking down, he saw that 'Orochimaru' had dissolved in a pool of mud. Naruto scraped the mud off his hands and turned around to face his adversary.

Orochimaru was not thrilled to be fighting Naruto. Outwardly, he was taunting him to make him think the difference in their skill was bigger than it actually was. Orochimaru knew it wasn't working, but he had to try it anyway. Despite his bravado, the ease with which Naruto put a hole through his torso was not lost on him.  
Naruto sighed. There was no way for him to win. At least, not without telling Orochimaru of things that would come to bite him in the ass later or, worse still, sacrificing his life or the ones of those around him. After all, it was only Sasuke that Orochimaru wanted alive, the other two were disposables. "How about this? We both have better things to be doing, and you have already fulfilled your purpose. Let's call this a draw and we go our own ways. We meet each other again, and it's open hostilities?"

Orochimaru sighed too, but his was mental. He couldn't fight Naruto without alerting others of his presence, if he hadn't already. "Alright, we will call ceasefire for now. I will find more about you, rest assured, for you are too interesting to leave alone." Naruto only nodded, and made sure the Sannin was far out of the area before relaxing. A quick scan of the area revealed Sakura to be passed out behind a tree. Naruto collected up all the bodies and his weights, put them on and loaded up the bodies on Shadow Clones and set off towards the middle tower. He also set off a team of Shadow Clones to collect an Earth scroll for Team 7.  
For the umpteenth time in the day, Naruto heaved a sigh.**  
**

**A/R: Excuse me for the late update, and the short one. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but there is a lot to cover next chapter, and I am starting on it right now. So rest assured, the next chapter will be long and coming along shortly.  
Please leave a review, it puts a big grin on my face.**


	28. NOT A CHAPTER! DON'T REVIEW!

Okay guys, this is just a quick note. Please don't review this, because I will be posting the chapter over this and you will be unable to review the actual chapter if you leave a signed review for the note. I have a feeling you will want to save your review for that.

And if you are absolutely adamant about voicing your displeasures about this note, then at least log out and use an anonymous review to vent, so that you can review the actual chapter when time comes. You can leave your account name in the review if you want me to reply to you, or you can just straight up PM me instead.

Now, onto why I actually decided to leave this note in the first place.

I just wanted to let you guys know that the next chapter might take a while to come out, because it is turning out to be a mammoth. Seriously, it's 6.6k words by my count and that's just after the first prelim match finished, so it is going to be big. I just wanted you guys to know that it wasn't because I was being lazy or not writing or something like that, or that I wound up getting ill again, but because the next chapter is taking time to write due to the size of it.

Well, at least you guys have a massive chapter to look forward to, eh?

Peace out, War in!


End file.
